The Grapes of Wrath Events Quotes

Chapter 1

The women knew it was all right, and the watching children knew it was all right. Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole. (1.10)

Chapter 4

[Casy:] "Just Jim Casy now. Ain't got the call no more. Got a lot of sinful idears – but they seem kinda sensible." (4.15)

Chapter 5

[the tractor driver:] "That's right," the tenant said. "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...

Chapter 6

"Fella gets use' to a place, it's hard to go," said Casy. "Fella gets use' to a way of thinkin' it's hard to leave." (6.72)

Chapter 7

[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." (7.30)

Chapter 8

[Ma Joad:]"I never had my house pushed over," she said. "I never had my fambly stuck out on the road. I never had to sell – ever'thing – Here they come now." (8.73)

Chapter 9

[tenant farmers:] 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...

Chapter 10

[Casy:] "Somepin's happening. I went up an' I looked, an' the houses us all empty, an' the land is empty, an' this whole country is empty." (10.35)

Chapter 12

[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 th...

Chapter 13

She walked for the family and held her head straight for the family. (13.169)

Chapter 14

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...

Chapter 16

[Casy:] "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." (16.111)

Chapter 17

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 drea...

Chapter 18

[the man swimming in the Colorado River:] "Well, Okie use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it means you're a dirty son-of-a-b****. Okie means you're scum." (18.72)

Chapter 25

All California quickens with produce, and the fruit grows heavy, and the limbs bend gradually under the fruit so that little crutches must be placed under them to support the weight. (25.2)

Chapter 26

[Ma Joad:] "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 –...

Chapter 29

Then the hungry men crowded the alleys behind the stores to beg for bread, to beg for rotting vegetables, to steal when they could. (29.11)

Chapter 30

[Ma Joad:] "Use' ta be the family was fust. It ain't so now. It's anybody." (30.48)