The Grapes of Wrath Inhumanity and Dehumanization Quotes

And now the great owners and the companies invented a new method. A great owner bought a cannery. And when the peaches and the pears were ripe he cut the price of fruit below the cost of raising it. And as cannery owner he paid himself a low price for the fruit and kept the price of canned goods up and took his profit. And the little farmers who owned no canneries lost their farms, and they were taken by the great owners, the banks, and the companies who also owned the canneries. As time went on, there were fewer farms. The little farmers moved into town for a while and exhausted their credit, exhausted their friends, their relatives. And then they too went on the highways. And the roads were crowded with men ravenous for work, murderous for work.
And the companies, the banks worked at their own doom and they did not know it. The fields were fruitful, and starving men moved on the roads. The granaries were full and the children of the poor grew up rachitic, and the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides. The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line. And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents and spies, for blacklists, for drilling. On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 21. Steinbeck continues his blistering attack on large-scale commercial agriculture, which not only drives Oklahoma sharecroppers into poverty, but small California farmers too. Big companies buy the canneries, underbid the small farmer for his produce and put him out of business. So the small California farmer joins the Dust Bowl migrants in the desperate search to find work and survive. But there is a warning for greedy business owners and banks, who invest profits in putting down rebellion by workers instead of paying them decent wages. By ignoring the growing "murderous" anger of hungry workers, the companies and banks are ensuring their own doom. There is foreshadowing here of a fightback against their inhuman methods.

The redness of his face deepened with anger…"We had a meeting last night. Now, do you know who runs the Farmers Association? I’ll tell you. The Bank of the West. That bank owns most of this valley, and it’s got paper on everything it don’t own. So last night the member from the bank told me, he said, ‘You’re paying thirty cents an hour. You’d better cut it down to twenty-five.’ I said, ‘I’ve got good men. They’re worth thirty.’ And he says, ‘It isn’t that,’ he says. ‘The wage is twenty-five now. If you pay thirty, it’ll only cause unrest.’"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Here we meet a decent small farmer Mr. Thomas, who pay his workers as fair a wage as he can. But he is being pressured by other landowners and the banks to cut migrants wages from thirty cents to twenty-five. He is angry at having to do this, but is forced to do it by the greedy and inhumane system. This passage exposes the corruption of the Farmer’s Assocation.

"Ain’t you got it yet? Mr. Bank hires two thousand men an’ I hire three. I’ve got paper to meet. Now if you can figure some way out, by Christ, I’ll take it! They got me."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Mr. Thomas is a small farmer who wants to pay Tom Joad and two other workers more money. But he reveals that he cannot because the bank has threatened to discontinue his loan if he does. Thomas is sympathetic to the plight of the migrants and goes on to lament to Tom Joad and Timothy and Wilkie Wallace: "I don’t know how you men can feed a family on what you get now."

"Citizens, angered at red agitators, burn squatters’ camp. Last night a band of citizens, infuriated at the agitation going on in a local squatters’ camp, burned the tents to the ground and warned agitators to get out of the county."
…Thomas folded the paper carefully and put it in his pocket. He had himself in control again. He said quietly, "Those men were sent out by the Association. Now I’m giving ’em away. And if they ever find out I told, I won’t have a farm next year."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. The employer Mr. Thomas is a small farmer who a lot of sympathy for the plight of migrant workers. He reads a newspaper report to Tom Joad and Timothy and Wilkie Wallace about a group of angry citizens burning a squatters’ camp, allegedly full of communist agitators. He reveals that the arsonists were sent by the Farmers’ Association, thus exposing how corrupt the group is. The camp referred to is the Hooverville camp where the Joads stayed the previous night before it was burned out. Thomas shows humanity and courage , he could lose his farm if the bank-owned Farmers’ Association learned that he had outed them for their role in the arson.

I was a recruit against Geronimo…Ever see a cock pheasant, stiff and beautiful, ever’ feather drawed an’ painted, an’ even his eyes drawed in pretty? An’ bang! You pick him up, bloody an’ twisted, an’ you spoiled somepin better’n you; an’ eatin’ him don’t never make it up to you, cause you spoiled somepin in yaself, an’ you can’t never fix it up.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 23. A migrant tells the story of his time as a soldier against Geronimo when his regiment was ordered to shoot an unresisting Indian brave. The warrior is compared to a beautiful cock pheasant. The migrant regrets destroying something better than himself. He feels that it has destroyed some of his own humanity. The migrants have a shared connection with Apache leader Geronimo and the Native Americans, a minority also exploited and forced off their lands.

"We ain’t gonna hurt you. Now who tol’ you to come bus’ up our dance?" He waited for a reply. "You’re our own folks," Huston said sadly. "You belong with us. How’d you happen to come? We know all about it," he added.
"Well, goddamn it, a fella got to eat."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 24. The Farmers’ Association callously exploits the hunger of migrants to recruit three of them to cause trouble for fellow migrants at Weedpatch. But despite their betrayal, Ezra Huston and his Central Committee show their humanity by not hurting them.

The little farmers watched debt creep up on them like the tide…This little orchard will be a part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner. This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries, too.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 25. Steinbeck makes effective use of simile ("like the tide") and personification ("debt creep up…will have choked") to describe the inhumanity of industrialized farming. The small fruit farmer, weighed down by bank debt, is swallowed up by the big farmer, who also happens to own the cannery too.

The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 25. This passage demonstrates the utter failure of the capitalist and economic system in California. Steinbeck write with deadly irony that agricultural science and technology can produce a bumper food harvest, but not the means whereby hungry people can eat it. Jobless migrants and the poor cannot afford to buy the produce. So much of it remains unsold and people go hungry. An inhumane capitalist system produces starvation in a land of plenty. The Pink Floyd song about the Great Depression, <em>Sorrow</em>, references the first line of the passage: "The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land / Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky / A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers / But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking."

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit – and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.
And the smell of rot fills the country.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 25. In California there is a bountiful harvest and over-abundance of food. It goes to waste, because in order to keep up the price the farm owners believe it must be destroyed. We get the horrifying image of "golden mountains" of oranges having kerosene sprayed on them, while a million people go hungry. This is uncontrolled industrial farming and quest for profits run amok, as a corrupt economic system scales new heights of inhumanity. The "smell of rot" not only refers to the wasted food, but also to the rotten system. Steinbeck brands the farmers’ actions a "crime" and speaks of the farm employees’ anger at having to carry it out.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates – died of malnutrition – because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 25. Steinbeck uses Biblical language in this chapter and passage to describe what he believes is an unspeakable crime against people and nature. Farmers cannot sell their crops because people are too poor to buy them. For many it is more economical to destroy or leave the crops to rot rather than harvest them, leaving people to starve. Farmers cannot make a profit from an orange, so children die of malnutrition, Steinbeck says in his savage indictment of the system.

The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 25. The chapter’s final words are Biblical in tone expressing almost a sentiment of doom. The last sentence references the song <em>Battle Hymn of the Republic</em> written by Julia Howe shortly before the American Civil War. The novel’s title is taken from a line of the song: "Mine eyes hath seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on." The "grapes of wrath" metaphor is also an allusion to Revelations 14:19 where evil people perish: "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs." A number of themes are in play in this important passage from the novel. They include the inhumanity of the large farmers, their greed, the anger of the people and the hunger that drives that anger. Steinbeck warns of the rising wrath of people left to starve in a California rich with food destroyed because harvesting isn’t profitable enough. There is foreshadowing of a rebellion by the people against this cruel system. Personification is used by the author in his depiction of the pigs "screaming."

"If a fella owns a team a horses, he don’t raise no hell if he got to feed ’em when they ain’t workin’. But if a fella got men workin’ for him, he jus’ don’t give a damn. Horses is a hell of a lot more worth than men. I don’ understan’ it."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 26. Willie Eaton lashes out at the broken system whereby migrant workers are exploited and used by employers for cheap labor. Horses are treated better than workers, he claims. They get fed while the families of workers cannot afford to eat. Just before this passage Willie hits at the low wages: "I been out here a year, an’ wages is goin’ right on down. Fella can’t feed his fam’ly on his work now, an’ it’s gettin’ worse all the time. It ain’t gonna do no good to set aroun’ an’ starve. I don’ know what to do."

"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.

"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.

"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.

"I been thinkin’ a hell of a lot, thinkin’ about our people livin’ like pigs, an’ the good rich lan’ layin’ fallow, or maybe one fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan’ good farmers is starvin’. An’ I been wonderin’ if all our folks got together an’ yelled, like them fellas yelled, only a few of ’em at the Hooper ranch."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Tom Joad has an epiphany in his cave, speaking fighting words to his mother before leaving his family for the last time. Tired of landowners unjustly treating starving migrant workers and paying them slave wages, Tom is now a transformed man. He speaks of rallying workers together to fight for better conditions. This is despite the breaking of the Hooper Ranch strike and killing of Jim Casy. Tom has become Casy’s successor.

Tom laughed uneasily, "Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, but on’y a piece of a big one – an’ then – "
"Then what, Tom?"
"Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where – wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ – I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build – why, I’ll be there. See? God, I’m talkin’ like Casy. Comes of thinkin’ about him so much. Seems like I can see him sometimes."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. As Tom Joad prepares to leave his family, he takes time to bid goodbye to his mother, delivering the novel’s most famous speech. From the dark isolation of his cave, he reveals how he has seen the light and humanity of Casy’s "one soul" philosophy. In his final appearance of the novel, he pledges to devote his life to fighting for justice for poor people oppressed by a corrupt system. His message is one that offers hope and leadership to hungry migrant workers searching for a just deal. Fully committed to Casy’s idea that we are all part of the one community of humanity, Tom has become Casy. He even admits that he speaks like him. And like Casy also, Tom went into a wilderness of his own, the cave, and discovered his true calling.

"Little fella like me can’t do anything. The Association sets the rate, and we got to mind. If we don’t – we ain’t got a farm. The little fella gets crowded all the time."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Ma Joad asks a small farmer looking for cotton pickers about the rumor that next year’s rate will drop from ninety to seventy-five cents. Confirming this, the small grower reveals that the Farmers’ Association fixes the rate and if he doesn’t comply he loses his farm. This is more evidence of the inhumanity and unbridled greed of the corrupt association.

"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."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Uncle John says this as he places Rose of Sharon’s stillborn baby in a box and sends it floating away in the stream. In doing so, he wishes that the body will be a message and a protest to the townspeople about the inhuman conditions of people in the migrant camps. His hope is that it will shock and stir people’s humanity, provoke their anger and bring about change.
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