Tom Joad Quotes

"How’d I know? I’m jus’ puttin’ one foot in front a the other. I done it at Mac for four years, jus’ marchin’ in cell an’ out cell an’ in mess an’ out mess. Jesus Christ, I thought it’d be somepin different when I come out!"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. Tom Joad responds to Casy’s question about what he is going to do if there aren’t jobs for the hundreds of migrants heading for California. Tom sums up his philosophy by saying that prison taught him to live one day at a time. A little later he says: "I climb fences when I got fences to climb."

"Thirty days is all right," Tom said. "An’ a hunderd an’ eighty days is all right. But over a year – I dunno. There’s somepin about it that ain’t like nothin’ else in the worl’. Somepin screwy about it, somepin screwy about the whole idea a lockin’ people up. Oh, the hell with it! I don’ wanna talk about it. Look a the sun a-flashin’ on them windas."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. Tom Joad is talking to his brother Al about his time in jail. He questions the inhumanity of locking a person up for a long time.

"Now look-a-here, fella. You got that eye wide open. An’ ya dirty, ya stink. Ya jus’ askin’ for it. Ya like it. Lets ya feel sorry for yaself. ‘Course ya can’t get no woman with that empty eye flappin’ aroun’. Put somepin over it an’ wash ya face."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. Tom has little sympathy for a bitter one-eyed man who hates his job and is thinking of hitting his boss with a wrench. Tom tells him to stop feeling sorry for himself and get his act together.

A jackrabbit got caught in the lights and he bounced along ahead, cruising easily, his great ears flopping with every jump. Now and then he tried to break off the road, but the wall of darkness thrust him back. Far ahead bright headlights appeared and bore down on them. The rabbit hesitated, faltered, then turned and bolted toward the lesser lights of the Dodge. There was a small soft jolt as he went under the wheels. The oncoming car swished by.
"We sure squashed him," said Casy.
Tom said, "Some fellas like to hit ’em. Gives me a little shakes ever’ time."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. Tom Joad accidentally hits a jackrabbit after he takes over the driving of the truck from Al. He tells Jom Casy that he doesn’t like hitting rabbits, but some other people do. The animal symbolizes people like the migrants who are in a struggle to survive. Some enjoy making them suffer, while others show compassion towards them.

The proprietor said, "If you wanta pull in here an’ camp it’ll cost you four bits. Get a place to camp an’ water an’ wood. An’ nobody won’t bother you."
"What the hell," said Tom. "We can sleep in the ditch right beside the road, an’ it won’t cost nothin’."
The owner drummed his knee with his fingers. "Deputy sheriff comes on by in the night. Might make it tough for ya. Got a law against sleepin’ out in this State. Got a law about vagrants."
"If I pay you a half a dollar I ain’t a vagrant, huh?"
"That’s right."
Tom’s eyes glowed angrily.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. This conversation develops when the Joad family pulls up at a place to camp for the night. Tom reacts refuses to pay the exploitative landowner who demands a 50 cents fee in order to sleep there. When Tom says that he will sleep for free at the side of the road, the camp owner threatens him with a visit from the deputy sheriff for being a vagrant. But he won’t be a vagrant if he pays half a dollar, the owner confirms. This display of corruption with law enforcement working hand in glove with greedy landowners provokes Tom’s anger.

"Got her fixed," said Tom. "We’re ready to go when the rest is."
"Thank the dear God for that," Ma said, "I’m just a-twitterin’ to go on. Wanta get where it’s rich an’ green. Wanta get there quick."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. Tom Joad announces that the car is fixed and they are ready go go. Ma Joad cannot wait to get to California, where she believes everything is prosperous and fresh. Time is of the essence because the Joads will run short of money and food if they don’t get there soon.

And Tom, looking at the ragged peaks across the river and the Needles downstream: "Never seen such tough mountains. This here’s a murder country. This here’s the bones of a country. Wonder if we’ll ever get in a place where folks can live ‘thout fightin’ hard scrabble an’ rocks. I seen pitchers of a country flat an’ green, an’ with little houses like Ma says, white. Ma got her heart set on a white house. Get to thinkin’ they ain’t no such country. I seen pitchers like that."
Pa said, "Wait till we get to California. You’ll see nice country then."
"Jesus Christ, Pa! This here is California."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 18. For Tom Joad the first glimpse of the California landscape doesn’t live up to how he imagined the Golden State would be. The imagery used to describe the landscape suggests that violence and death and harshness awaits the migrants. This foreshadows that the Joads life in California will not match their expectations.

Tom said, "You got nothin’ on him."
The deputy swung around. "’F you’d like to go in too, you jus’ open your trap once more. They was two fellas hangin’ around that lot."
"I wasn’t even in the State las’ week," Tom said.
"Well, maybe you’re wanted someplace else. You keep your trap shut."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 20. This exchange between a deputy sheriff and Tom Joad highlights the extent of corruption of the police force in California. If you argue with the police and haven’t committed a crime, they’ll invent one! The deputy is trying to arrest Floyd Knowles, when Tom challenges him.

The deputy staggered and Tom put out his foot for him to trip over. The deputy fell heavily and rolled, reaching for his gun. Floyd dodged in and out of sight down the line. The deputy fired from the ground. A woman in front of a tent screamed and then looked at a hand which had no knuckles. The fingers hung on strings against her palm, and the torn flesh was white and bloodless.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 20. This passage graphically details the reckless maiming of an innocent woman by a deputy sheriff in the Hoverville migrant camp. Tom Joad comes to the defense of fellow-migrant Floyd Knowles and trips the deputy trying to arrest him. The unity and solidarity that binds the migrants together is highlighted here.

"If it was the law they was workin’ with, why, we could take it. But it ain’t the law. They’re a-workin’ away at our spirits. They’re a-tryin’ to make us cringe an’ crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin’ to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on’y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin’ a sock at a cop. They’re workin’ on our decency."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 20. Tom Joad explains to his mother why he is so angry with the police deputies, as she attempts to restrain him. He is bitter about the way they mistreat and humiliate migrants, stamping on their dignity. He wants to fight back and take "a sock" at them.

"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.

"I wanta touch ya again, Tom. It’s like I’m blin’, it’s so dark. I wanta remember, even if it’s on’y my fingers that remember. You got to go away, Tom."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Ma Joad visits her Tom in his lightless cave hideout in the boxcar camp. Her great love for her son and family is shown as she touches his face all over with her hand. This is so that her fingers will remember Tom when he leaves the family to go on the run from the law. This is one of the novel’s most moving moments between mother and son.

"I been thinkin’ what he said, an’ I can remember – all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’ he didn’t have no soul that was his’n. Says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ’cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no good ‘less it was with the rest, an’ was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn’ think I was even listenin’. But I know now a fella ain’t no good alone."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Tom Joad is talking to Ma in the darkness of his cave during his self-enforce exile there to evade the law. He speaks of Jim Casy’s revelation when he went into the wilderness to discover his own soul. What he learned was that the answer is not in the wilderness, but in uniting with all other souls. In Casy’s religion we are all part of the one great soul, a universal spirit. Tom is about to leave his wilderness and join with the other migrant worker souls in the fight for equality and justice.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lif’ up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 28. Tom recites a piece of scripture from Ecclesiastes, taught to him by Jim Casy. It says that people are stronger if they work together to help one another. Tom is quoting it in support of organized labor and fighting against the injustice and inequality meted out to workers.

"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.
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