The Grapes of Wrath Quotes

"I know what they cost in town."
The little man clamped his mouth tight. "Then go git ’em in town."
…"Any reason you got to make fun? That help you any?…Doin’ a dirty thing like this. Shames ya, don’t it? Got to act flip, huh?"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Ma Joad queries food costs at the Hooper Ranch store, where the owners have raised their prices. The store worker responds in a demeaning and sarcastic manner. Ma shames and reprimands him for making fun of migrant workers, who cannot afford to travel into town where food is cheaper. Ma’s shopping experience exposes the inhumanity of the big farm owners. Not only do they pay poor wages, but they doubly exploit workers by charging higher prices for food than nearby town stores.

"If you’re in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Ma Joad says this to the store worker who lends her ten cents to buy sugar, when he learns that she hasn’t enough money. Her comment touches on the theme of kindness. According to Ma, the poor community will help you quicker when in trouble or need, not the rich with their greater resources. The reason she didn’t have money left for sugar is that the store owners raised their food prices.

"Well, one day they give us some beans that was sour. One fella started yellin’, an’ nothin’ happened. He yelled his head off…Then another fella yelled. Well, sir, then we all got yellin’. And we all got on the same tone, an’ I tell ya, it jus’ seems like that tank bulged an’ give and swelled up. By God! Then somepin happened! They come a-runnin’, and they give us some other stuff to eat."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Jim Casy tells a story about his time in jail, how one prisoner protesting about the food failed to achieve any success. But when a group of prisoners protested together they got better food, proving the power of organized resistance.

"We come to work there. They says it’s gonna be fi’ cents. They was a hell of a lot of us. We got there an’ they says they’re payin’ two an’ a half cents. A fella can’t even eat on that, an’ if he got kids – So we says we won’t take it. So they druv us off. An’ all the cops in the worl’ come down on us. Now they’re payin’ you five. When they bust this here strike – ya think they’ll pay five?"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Jim Casy, who has become a labor activist, tells Tom Joad that he is part of a group of striking workers refusing to work until wages are raised. He reveals the deceit of the Hooper Ranch owners. Workers were promised they would be paid five cents for each box of peaches collected. But when they arrived they were paid two and a half cents. The Joads are getting five cents because they are strikebreakers, but Casy foreshadows that this will soon be cut. His comments also highlight the corruption of the police, who serve the interests of ranch owners by coming down hard on striking workers.

"Folks is their own cops."
…Casy’s eyes shone with excitement. He turned to the other men. "Ya see?" he cried. "I tol’ you. Cops cause more trouble than they stop."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Tom Joad explains that in the government migrant camp, instead of people being kept in order by police offices, the migrants act as a community and police themselves. Jim Casy reacts excitedly, offering the ironic comment that California police cause more trouble than they prevent.

"You fellas don’ know what you’re doin’. You’re helpin’ to starve kids."
"Shut up, you red son-of-a-bitch."
A short heavy man stepped into the light. He carried a new white pick handle.
Casy went on, "You don’t know what you’re a-doin’."
The heavy man swung with the pick handle. The heavy club crashed into the side of his head with a dull crunch of bone, and Casy fell sideways out of the light.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. As Jim Casy leads the workers’ strike for decent wages, he gets murdered for his troubles. Two police officers approach and recognize Casy as the worker’s leader and call him a communist. As Casy pleads that the officers are helping to starve children, one of them smashes his skull with a pick handle. In a Biblical allusion, Casy forgives the corrupt officer before he dies, using the same language Christ did when he forgave his crucifiers. In sacrificing his life in the cause of workers’ rights, the former preacher is presented as a Christ-like figure.

Tom looked down at the preacher. The light crossed the heavy man’s legs and the white new pick handle. Tom leaped silently. He wrenched the club free. The first time he knew he had missed and struck a shoulder, but the second time his crushing blow found the head, and as the heavy man sank down, three more blows found his head.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. An angry Tom Joad delivers retribution to the police officer who has murdered Jim Casy. He rains five blows on the officer, killing him. While morally wrong, Tom’s act is different to the drunken killing of the man at a dance, which earned him four years in prison. In this case he is standing up for migrants’ rights and fighting for a righteous cause greater than himself. He is taking on the role of Casy.

"Goin’ away ain’t gona ease us. It’s gonna bear us down…They was the time when we was on the lan’. They was a boundary to us then. Ol’ folks dies off, an’ little fellas come, an’ we was one thing – we was the fambly – kinda whole and clear. An’ we ain’t clear no more."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Ma Joad pleads with her son Tom to stay in order to keep the family together. This is after Tom, who earlier killed Casy’s murderer, says that he must go away because he doesn’t want to put his family at risk. While Tom’s concern is for the safety of the family, Ma is all about keeping the family intact.

"You ain’t goin’. We’re a-takin’ you. Al, you back the truck against the door. Now, I got it figgered out. We’ll put one mattress on the bottom, an’ then Tom gets quick there, an’ we take another mattress an’ sort of fold it so it makes a cave, an’ he’s in the cave; and then we sort of wall it in. He can breathe out the end, ya see. Don’t argue. That’s what we’ll do."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Ma Joad takes command of the family, coming up with a plan to keep everyone together, despite Tom being hunted for killing a policeman. That night Tom goes into isolation, hiding between two matresses in the truck as they drive north from the Hooper Ranch. Ma is adament that the family stays as one unit, because there is strength in unity.

"Funny thing. I wanta buy stuff. Stuff I don’t need. Like to git one a them safety razors. Thought I’d like to have some a them gloves over there. Awful cheap."
"Can’t pick no cotton with gloves," said Pa.
"I know that. An’ I don’t need no safety razor, neither. Stuff settin’ out there, you jus’ feel like buyin’ it whether you need it or not."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. What a little money can do to a person! With the Joads earning money picking cotton, Uncle John becomes infected with the bug of consumerism. He purchases things he doesn’t need, buying just for the sake of buying. It seems that the Joads, when financial circumstances improve, are not immune to the lure of material possessions. They start to behave like the rich! Or at least Uncle John does.
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