How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[T]he boys and I would wear threadbare clothing washed to dishwater color; but always, the taxes and the mortgage would be paid up. (1.18)
The Logans aren't going for eco-conscious street cred here by wearing their clothes until they fall apart. It's actually out of necessity. Like the sharecropping families, the Logans are poor. As we find out, though, they are at least a tiny bit better off than most of the others, since they own their own land.
Quote #2
[A] tall, emaciated-looking boy popped suddenly from a forest trail and swung a thin arm around Stacey. It was T.J. Avery. His younger brother Claude emerged a moment later, smiling weakly as if it pained him to do so. Neither boy had on shoes, and their Sunday clothing, patched and worn, hung loosely upon their frail frames. The Avery family sharecropped on Granger land. (1.20)
The Averys are one of the poorest families in the area, and we find out later they have eight kids (four of them preschoolers). They obviously don't get enough food to eat (look at how skinny they are), and they do not have shoes (which you can imagine must be super difficult in the winter). Are we surprised that T.J. turned out the way he did?
Quote #3
"I got no cash money. Mr. Montier signs for me up at that Wallace store so's I can get my tools, my mule, my seed, my fertilizer, my food, and what few clothes I needs to keep my children from runnin' plumb naked." (4.252)
Mr. Turner exemplifies the poverty of the sharecroppers. Because he's so poor, he has to have his credit at the Wallace store backed by Mr. Montier to buy the things he needs to run his farm and keep his family going. This is pretty much the "company store" model. And if you've read The Grapes of Wrath, this will sound familiar.
Quote #4
"That'll be a few years yet," she answered, readjusting the cardboard lining she had placed in her shoes to protect her feet from the dirt and gravel which could easily seep through the large holes in the soles. She set the shoes on the floor and stepped into them. Now, with the soles facing downward and Mama's feet in them, no one could tell what the shiny exteriors hid; yet I felt uncomfortable for Mama and wished that we had enough money for her to have her shoes fixed, or better still, buy new ones. (6.112)
Imagine if you had to do this on any kind of a regular basis. It would get old very fast. We think Mama is pretty heroic for making sacrifices like this. Plus, Cassie comes off as admirable for wishing her mother had better shoes. The situation really bothers her; she's "uncomfortable" that she has to see her mother wear cardboard lining in her old, worn-out shoes to protect her feet from rocks and pebbles.
Quote #5
Mama had to buy our clothes in shifts, which meant that we each had to wait our turn for new clothes. (6.132)
Did we mention that times are tough? We think we might have. This is just one more example of the hardships the Logan family face.
Quote #6
"When cotton-pickin' time comes, he sells my cotton, takes half of it, pays my debt up at that store and my interest for they credit, then charges me ten to fifteen percent more as "risk" money for signin' for me in the first place. This year I earned me near two hundred dollars after Mr. Montier took his half of the crop money, but I ain't seen a penny of it. In fact, if I manages to come out even without owin' that man nothin', I figures I've had a good year." (4.252)
Slavery may be over, but sharecropping is almost as good. By which we mean bad. The poor farmers will never get out from under the control of the landowners until they are able to buy their own land (like the Logans). And for most of them, that's as likely to happen as Mr. Granger dressing up in a Santa suit and handing out shiny new toys to all the good little girls and boys.
Quote #7
Mama frowned down into the flour barrel. 'Only one tablespoon, Cassie, and not so heaping."
"But, Mama, we always use two."
"That barrel will have to last us until Papa goes back to the railroad. Now put it back." (9.23-25)
Many families had to ration food during the Great Depression, and the Logans are no different. They weren't rich to begin with, but now with their land possibly in jeopardy, they have to stretch things to make them last.
Quote #8
"Mr. Granger making it hard on us, David. Said we gonna have to give him sixty percent of the cotton, 'stead of fifty . . . now that the cotton's planted and it's too late to plant more . . . Don't s'pose though that it makes much difference. The way cotton sells these days, seems the more we plant, the less money we get anyways—" (9.69)
Mr. Granger and the other landowners are punishing the black sharecroppers for boycotting the Wallace store by demanding a higher percentage of cotton for rent. This will put the families in an even worse situation—and some may be kicked off of the land they're renting.
Quote #9
"We'll probably have to sell a couple of the cows and their calves to make them July and August notes . . . maybe even that ole sow. But by the end of August we should have enough cotton to make that September payment." (10.12)
Uh oh. It's never good when you have to start selling your animals. What might be the financial repercussions of selling the farm animals? What does the family do with these animals currently?
Quote #10
"It's better, I think, that you stay clear of this whole thing now, David, and don't give anybody cause to think about you at all, except that you got what was coming to you by losing a quarter of your cotton . . ." (12.143)
This is Mr. Jamison, and there's a significant point buried in here. Papa has lost "a quarter" of the family's cotton crop in the fire. That means that the land may be lost because the Logan family needs every spare cent to pay off the mortgage.