The Grapes of Wrath Quote Identification

"She walked for the family and held her head straight for the family. "

About Ma

"In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream. "

About the Migrant workers on route 66

"I tried to tell you folks," he said. "Somepin it took me a year to find out. Took two kids dead, took my wife dead to show me. But I can't tell you. I should of knew that. Nobody couldn't tell me. But I can't tell you. I should of knew that. Nobody couldn't tell me, neither. I can't tell ya about them little fellas layin' in the tent with their bellies puffed out an' jus' skin on their bones, an' shiverin' an' whinin' like pups, an' me runnin' aroun' tryin' to get work - not for money, not for wages!" he shouted.

Angry man at campsite to Joads

"You think you're jus'--hell on wheels."

Blonde girl to Al

"I ain't in business for my health. I'm here a-sellin' tires. I ain't givin' 'em away. I can't help what happens to you. I got to think what happens to me."

Car Salesman

"Mules! Hey, Joe, hear this? This guy wants to trade mules. Didn't nobody tell you this is the machine age? They don't use mules for nothing but glue no more."

Car Salesman

"All that's holy, all that's what I didn' understan'. All them things is the good things."

Casy

"If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich."

Casy

"Maybe I can preach again. Folks out lonely on the road, folks with no lan', no home to go to. They got to have some kind of home."

Casy

"You don' know what you're a-doin'."

Casy to George

"I can't. I don' know what to pray for or who to pray to."

Casy to Ma

"Fella gets use' to a place, it's hard to go," "Fella gets use' to a way of thinkin' it's hard to leave."

Casy to Muley

"Ain't got the call no more. Got a lot of sinful idears - but they seem kinda sensible."

Casy to Tom

"Here I got the sperit sometimes an' nothin' to preach about. I got the call to lead people, an' no place to lead 'em."

Casy to Tom

"I ain't preachin' no more much. The sperit ain't in the people much no more; and worse'n that, the sperit ain't in me no more. 'Course now an' again the sperit gets movin' an' I rip out a meetin', or when folks sets out food, I give 'em a grace, but my heart ain't in it. I on'y do it 'cause they expect it."

Casy to Tom

"I figgered there just wasn't no hope for me, an' I was a damned ol' hypocrite. But I didn't mean to be."

Casy to Tom

"Somepin's happening. I went up an' I looked, an' the houses is all empty, an' the land is empty, an' this whole country is empty"

Casy to Tom

"There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do."

Casy to Tom

"They's gonna come somepin outa all these folks goin' wes' - outa all their farms lef' lonely. They's gonna come a thing that's gonna change the whole country."

Casy to Tom

"Why, Tommy, I'm a-lustin' after the flesh."

Casy to Tom

"I can't say no grace like I use' ta say. I'm glad of the holiness of breakfast. I'm glad there's love here. That's all."

Casy to everyone

"What we comin' to? Seems to me we don't never come to nothin'. Always on the way. Always on the way.Always goin' and goin'. Why don't folks think about that? They's movement now. People moving. We know why, an' we know how. Movin' cause they got to. That's why folks always move. Movin' 'cause they want somepin better'n what they got. An' that's the on'y way they'll ever git it. Wantin' and neddin' it, they'll go out an' git it. It's bein' hurt that makes folks mad to fightin'..."

Casy to fat man pumping gas

"I ain't saying for you to stay. You go right along. Me--I'm stayin'. I give her a goin'-over all night mos'ly. This here's my country. I b'long here. An' I don't give a g***amn if they's oranges an' grapes crowdin' a fella outa bed even. I ain't a-goin'. This country ain't no good, but it's my country. No, you all go ahead. I'll jus' stay right here where I b'long."

Grampa to Pa

"Jus' like I said, they ain't a gonna keep no Joad in jail. I says, 'Tommy'll come a-bustin' outa that jail like bull through a corral fence.' An' you done it."

Grampa to Tom

"Pu-raise Gawd fur vittory."

Granma

"Well, Okie use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty son-of-a-bitch. Okie means you're scum."

Guy in River to Tom

"Says he wasn't hungry, or he jus' et. Give me the food. Now he's too weak. Can't hardly move."

Little boy in barn to Joads

"Besides, us folks takes a pride holdin' in. My pa used to say, 'Anybody can break down. It takes a man not to.' We always try to hold in."

Ma

"I'm learning one thing good," she said. "Learnin' it all the time, ever' day. If you're in trouble or hurt or need - go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones."

Ma

"It's women's work,"

Ma

"Only it ain't like scared so much. I'm just settin' here waitin'. When somepin happens that I got to do somepin--I'll do it."

Ma to Al

"Why, we'd be proud to have you. 'Course I can't say right now; Pa says all the men'll talk tonight."

Ma to Casy

"Use' ta be the family was fust. It ain't so now. It's anybody."

Ma to Mrs. Wainwright

"On'y way you gonna get me to go is whup me. An' I'll shame you, Pa. I won't take no whuppin', cryin' an' a-beggin'. I'll light into you. An' you ain't so sure you can whup me anyways. An' if ya do get me, I swear to God I'll wait till you got your back turned, or you're settin' down, an' I'll knock you belly-up with a bucket. I swear to Holy Jesus' sake I will."

Ma to Pa

"Woman can change better'n a man. Woman got all her life in her arms. Man got it all in his head. Don' you mind. Maybe--well, maybe nex' year we can get a place."

Ma to Pa

"An' that's one more thing a woman knows, I noticed that. Man, he lives in jerks--baby born an' a man dies, an' that's a jerk--gets a farm an' loses his farm, an' that's a jerk. Woman. it's all one flow, like a stream, little eddies, little waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it like that. We ain't gonna die out. People is goin' on--changin' a little, maybe, but goin' right on."

Ma to Pa (and sorta Uncle John)

"I never had my house pushed over, I never had my fambly stuck out on the road. I never had to sell--ever'thing--"

Ma to Tom

"Take a man, he can get worried, an' it eats out his liver, an' purty soon he'll jus' lay down and die with his heart et out. But if you can take an' make 'im mad, why, he'll be awright. Pa, he didn' say nothin', but he's mad now. He'll show me now. He's awright."

Ma to Tom

"Well, I'm a-scairt about it. Sometimes you do a crime, an' you don't even know it's bad. Maybe they got crimes in California we don't even know about. Maybe you gonna do somepin an' it's all right, an' in California it ain't all right."

Ma to Tom

"You got more sense, Tom. I don' need to make you mad. I got to lean on you. Them others--they're kinda strangers, all but you. You won't give up, Tom."

Ma to Tom

"Jus' try to live the day, jus' the day."

Ma to Uncle John

"Sure, nice to look at, but you can't have none of it. They's a grove of yella oranges - an' a guy with a gun that got the right to kill you if you touch one."

Man swimming in river

"Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else. You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business."

Migrant work

"They's lots of things 'gainst the law that we can't he'p doin'."

Mrs. Wainwright

"They's lots of things 'gainst the law that we can't help doin'."

Mrs. Wainwright to Pa

"No, I won't. I can't go away. I got to stay now. Time back I might of went. But not now. Fella gits to thinkin' , an' he gits to knowin'. I ain't never goin'."

Muley to Ma

The Western land, nervous under the beginning change. The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunder storm. The great owners, nervous, sensing a change, knowing nothing of the nature of the change

Narrator

"I ain't no good any more. Spen' all my time a-thinkin' how it use' ta be. Spen' all my time thinkin' of home, an' I ain't never gonna see it no more."

Pa to Ma

"I know. I never even see it, thinkin' how the willow's los' its leaves now. Sometimes figgerin' to mend that hole in the south fence. Funny! Woman takin' over the fambly. Woman sayin' we'll do this here, an' we'll go there. An' I don' even care."

Pa to Ma

"Seems like times is changed. Time was when a man said what we'd do. Seems like a women is tellin' now. Seems like it's purty near time to get out a stick."

Pa to Ma

"You know ever'thing."

Pa to Ma

"he's a-billygoatin' aroun' the country. Tom-cattin' hisself to death. Smart-aleck sixteen-year-older, an' his nuts is just a-eggin' him on. He don't think of nothin' but girls and engines. A plain smart-aleck. Ain't been in nights for a week."

Pa to Tom (about Al)

"We ain't a gonna do it. We got almost a kin bond. Grampa, he died in your tent."

Pa to Wilson

"They's change a-comin'. I don' know what. Maybe we won't live to see her. But she's a-comin'. They's a res'less feelin'. Fella can't figger nothin' out, he's so nervous."

Pa to men squatting

"Maybe it ain't nice for purty, but it's nice for nice,"

Rose of Sharon to Granma

"Maybe right at first while Connie's studyin' at home it won't be so easy, but - well, when the baby comes, maybe he'll be all done studyin' an' we'll have a place, little bit of a place."

Rose of Sharon to Ma

"You shouldn't talk like that. We're proud to help. I ain't felt so - safe in a long time. People needs - to help."

Sairy Wilson

"We been nothin' but trouble, nothin' but trouble."

Sairy to Pa

But if we go, where'll we go? How'll we go? We got no money.

Tenant farmers

"Don't go a=sassin' me. I 'member you. You're one of these here troublemakers."

The Proprietor to Tom

"That's what you think! Ever hear of the border patrol on the California line? Police from Los Angeles - stopped you bastards, turned you back. Says, if you can't buy no real estate we don't want you. Says, got a driver's license? Le's see it. Tore it up. Says you can't come in without no driver's license."

Tire salesman

"Well, try to get some freedom to do. Fella says you're jus' as free as you got jack to pay for it."

Tire salesman

"I got seven years, account of he had a knife in me. Got out in four--parole."

Tom

"You'd have yaself a fambly in nine months. I seen you playin' aroun'."

Tom to Al

"He's a nice fella. He thinks about stuff all the time."

Tom to Al (about Casy)

"I seen turtles all my life. They're always goin' some place. They always seem to want to get there."

Tom to Casy

"Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of."

Tom to Casy

"Oh, awright. You eat regular, an' get clean clothes, and there's places to take a bath. It's pretty nice some ways. Makes it hard not havin' no women [...] They was a guy paroled," he said. "'Bout a month he's back for breakin' parole. A guy ast him why he bust this parole. 'Well, hell,' he says. 'They got no conveniences at my old man's place. Got no 'lectric lights, got no shower baths. There ain't no books, an' the food's lousy.'"

Tom to Casy

"What the hell you want to lead 'em someplace for? Jus' lead 'em."

Tom to Casy

"He says it makes him feel lonesome out there in the open havin' to think what to do next. So he stole a car an' come back."

Tom to Casy about prisoner

"I'm a-gonna tell you somepin about bein' in the pen. You can't go thinkin' when you're gonna be out. You'd go nuts. You got to think about that day, an' then the nex' day, about the ball game Sat'dy. That's what you got to do. Ol'timers does that. A new young fella gets buttin' his head on the cell door. He's thinkin' how long it's gonna be. Whyn't you do that? Jus' take ever'day."

Tom to Ma

"Jesus Christ, one person with their mind made up can shove a lot of folks aroun'! You win, Ma. Put away that jack handle 'fore you hurt somebody."

Tom to Ma

"We're gonna find ya. California ain't the whole world."

Tom to Ma

"Damn right. I'm bolshevisky."

Tom to Proprietor

"It don't take no nerve to do somepin when there ain't nothin' else you can do."

Tom to service-sation boy

"I got orders wherever there's a family not moved out - if I have an accident - you know, get too close and cave the house in a little - well, I might get a couple of dollars. And my youngest kid never had no shoes yet."

Tractor driver to tenant man

"Times are changed, don't you know? Thinking about stuff like that don't feed the kids. Get your three dollars a day, feed your kids. You got no call to worry about anybody's kids but your own. You get a reputation for talking like that, and you'll never get three dollars a day if you worry about anything but your three dollars a day."

Truck driver to tenant man

"I didn' hardly see 'em. 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."

Uncle John to Pa

"These here nice toilets gets me sinful."

Uncle John to Pa

"Go down an' tell 'em. Go down in the street an' rot an' tell 'em that way. That's the way you can talk. Don' even know if you was a boy or a girl. Ain't gonna find out. Go on down now, an' lay in the street. Maybe they'll know then."

Uncle John to dead baby

"Goin' to California? Here's jus' what you need. Looks shot, but they's thousan's of miles in her."

Used car salesman

"That rattle - that's tappets. Don't hurt a bit. Tappets can rattle till Jesus comes again without no harm. But that thudding as the car moves along - can't hear that - just kind of feel it. Maybe oil isn't gettin' someplace. Maybe a bearing's startin' to go."

Used car salesman

"Horses is a hell of a lot more worth than men. I don' understan' it."

Willie to Jule and Tom

"There's no beholden in a time of dying."

Wilson to Pa

"They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money."

about banks/companies

"...the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow got into the ______'s hands, into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him--goggled his mind, muzzled his speech, goggled his perception, muzzled his protest."

about the tractor driver

"Got to. I'll go on the rim before I'd give that son-of-a-bitch a dime."

customer looking for a tire about Car Salesman

"The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than the men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it."

owner men to the tenant man

"You'll be stealing if you try to stay, you'll be murderers if you try ti stay. The monster isn't men, but it can make men do what it wants."

owner men to the tenant man

"We measured it and broke it up. We were born on it, and we got killed on it, died on it. Even if it's no good, it's still ours. That's what makes it ours--being born on it, working it, dying on it. That makes ownership, not a paper with numbers on it."

tenant man

But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me - why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again."

tenant man to tenant man

"But for your three dollars a day fifteen or twenty families can't eat at all. Nearly a hundred people have to go out and wander on the roads for your three dollars a day. Is that right?"

tenant man to tractor driver

"But where does it stop? Who can we shoot? I don't aim to starve to death before I kill the man that's starving me."

tenant man to tractor driver

"Big shots won't give you three dollars a day if you worry about anything but your three dollars a day."

tractor driver to tenant man

"Suppose you kill me? They'll just hang you, but long before you're hung there'll be another guy on the tractor, and he'll bump the house down. You're not killing the right guy."

tractor driver to tenant man