The Grapes of Wrath Quotes

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. These are the opening lines of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece exposing the cruelty of the Great Depression and struggles of migrant farmworkers forced to flee west from the Dust Bowl that struck the southern plains of the U.S. It was Steinbeck’s journalism that inspired the 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Three years earlier he was commissioned by the San Francisco News to write on migrant labor camps in California’s Salinas Valley. His series of seven articles, titled <em>The Harvest Gypsies</em>, described the migrants’ desperate conditions. Steinbeck explained his purpose in writing the novel about the plight of dispossessed tenant farmers driven from their homes. He famously said: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this." The opening quote takes the reader to the heart of Oklahoma, to its land and its agriculture, greatly damaged by the severe dust storms of the 1930s. This is suggested in the description of the earth as "scarred" – implying that it is disfigured or injured. The red country and gray country refer literally to the red soil characteristic of Oklahoma and caused by its high iron content and the normal brown-gray clay found in other parts of the state. But there is also a symbolism in these colors, with red signalling danger and warnings and gray being associated with sadness. This may be seen as foreshadowing the difficulties that the "Okie" Joad family will face, first losing their home to foreclosure, then setting off on their epic odyssey to California. In Steinbeck’s defining novel, the land becomes one of the most important characters after the Joads. The entire first chapter is devoted to an apocalypic description of the slow decay of the land that forces the great migration to California during the destructive Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

In the last part of May the sky grew pale and the clouds that had hung in high puffs for so long in the spring were dissipated. The sun flared down on the growing corn day after day until a line of brown spread along the edge of each green bayonet. The clouds appeared, and went away, and in a while they did not try any more. The weeds grew darker green to protect themselves, and they did not spread any more. The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the gray country.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Here Steinbeck plays the role of an artist painting a picture of the devastation caused to the land and crops by the drought. He uses detailed imagery and dark, descriptive language to express a sense of hopelessness and a land at war with natural events. The ears of corn are "green bayonets," clouds give up trying to appear as the sky grows paler, distressed weeds try to "protect themselves." Steinbeck uses personification to give human characteristics to lifeless objects like the clouds and weeds. Color imagery conveys how the life’s blood is draining the Oklahoma earth, as it crusts and turns pale, the red country now pink and the gray country white. It’s as if the land, the other central character after the Joad family, is dying a slow death.

The clouds appeared and went away, and in a while they did not try anymore.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Here we have a description of the gray, cloudless skies over Oklahoma. The "Oakie" sharecroppers wonder when, if ever, the rains will come to provide life-giving water for their parched crops. The novel goes on to detail the powerful story of desperation and hopes, failures and hopelessness of those at the bottom of the socio-economic food chain, who face a system that dehumanizes and strips them of human dignity.

And as the sharp sun struck day after day, the leaves of the young corn became less stiff and erect; they bent in a curve at first, and then, as the central ribs of strength grew weak, each leaf tilted downward. Then it was June, and the sun shone more fiercely. The brown lines on the corn leaves widened and moved in on the central ribs.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. The opening chapter pitches us right into the drought in Oklahoma with its devastating effects on its agriculture. With the sharp summer sun striking daily, weakening and then withering the corn, Steinbeck’s language helps us visualize the farmers watching helplessly and hopelessly as their livelihoods die in front of their eyes. The harsh future facing families is also foreshadowed here.

The air was thin and the sky more pale; and every day the earth paled. In the roads where the teams moved, where the wheels milled the ground and the hooves of the horses beat the ground, the dirt crust broke and the dust formed. Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. The first chapter, one of Steinbeck’s intercalary chapters, is devoted to a description of the great dust storm of 1934. The book’s narrative chapters are interspersed with these interchapters by Steinbeck. He uses the the latter to paint a broader picture and insert his own commentary and interpretation of the narrative story. The opening chapter paints a vision of the enveloping and unending nature of the swirling dust of the American Dust Bowl. The imagery of this passage describes how the slightest movement, whether of a walker or vehicle, stirs up a cloud of dust that takes a long time to settle back. The ubiquitous presence of the word "dust" in the chapter adds to the dramatic effect, it’s repeated 24 times in the opening chapter and 120 times in the novel.

A gentle wind followed the rain clouds, driving them on northward, a wind that softly clashed the drying corn. A day went by and the wind increased, steady, unbroken by gusts. The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way. Now the wind grew strong and hard and it worked at the rain crust in the corn fields. Little by little the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and the wind felt over the earth, loosened the dust, and carried it away. The wind grew stronger. The rain crust broke and the dust lifted up out of the fields and drove gray plumes into the air like sluggish smoke. The corn threshed the wind and made a dry, rushing sound. The finest dust did not settle back to earth now, but disappeared into the darkening sky.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. This passage describes how the wind takes up the dust and and spreads it across the land of Oklahoma. Steinbeck’s rich descriptive powers manage to immerse completely the reader in the devastation of the Dust Bowl. Personification makes the scene more vivid by inviting us to imagine the wind as a living being wreaking havoc on the earth. Color imagery describing the "gray plumes" of dust and the darkening sky paint a picture of natural ruin and diminishing hope.

During a night the wind raced faster over the land, dug cunningly among the rootlets of the corn, and the corn fought the wind with its weakened leaves until the roots were freed by the prying wind and then each stalk settled wearily sideways toward the earth and pointed the direction of the wind.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. From the get-go, Steinbeck uses personification to make his story more vivid and engaging to the reader. He stretches the boundaries of reality by giving the wind and the corn human characteristics. Thus the wind is cunning and the corn fights the wind. This adds dramatic effect to the description of the weather.

The dawn came, but no day. In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk; and as that day advanced, the dusk slipped back toward darkness, and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Here the wind is personified as it cries and whimpers over the ruined corn. This helps the reader visualize the farming families lamenting the loss of their crops and livelihoods. We also have the theme of false hope, as color imagery describes the appearance of a red sun, only to have much of its light blocked out by a gray sky caused by the dust storms.

Men and women huddled in their houses, and they tied handkerchiefs over their noses when they went out, and wore goggles to protect their eyes. When the night came again it was black night, for the stars could not pierce the dust to get down, and the window lights could not even spread beyond their own yards. Now the dust was evenly mixed with the air, an emulsion of dust and air. Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes. The people brushed it from their shoulders. Little lines of dust lay at the door sills.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. The repetition of the word "dust" helps us visualize how all-pervasive the dust is, both outdoors and indoors. People are forced to stay inside their homes and wear handkerchiefs and goggles to protect themselves from it. But the dust finds its way inside the houses, where Steinbeck uses a simile to compare it to pollen settling on everything. His depiction of the drought and dust storms and the environmental and human catastrophe they brought is as if he was describing a plague of Biblical proportions.

In the middle of that night the wind passed on and left the land quiet. The dust-filled air muffled sound more completely than fog does. The people, lying in their beds, heard the wind stop. They awakened when the rushing wind was gone. They lay quietly and listened deep into the stillness. Then the roosters crowed, and their voices were muffled, and the people stirred restlessly in their beds and wanted the morning. They knew it would take a long time for the dust to settle out of the air. In the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood. All day the dust sifted down from the sky, and the next day it sifted down. An even blanket covered the earth. It settled on the corn, piled up on the tops of the fence posts, piled up on the wires; it settled on roofs, blanketed the weeds and trees.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Steinbeck uses the first of the interchapters, which are inserted between the narrative chapters, to paint a picture of what daily life is like for people in the Dust Bowl. It is only when the wind dies down and the people emerge from their homes that they see the new world the dust has created. The opening chapter describes the day after a disastrous dust storm. A simile compares the dust to a fog hanging in the air in the morning. As the day wears on it slowly settles down from the sky to cover the earth and everything on it. Steinbeck employs a metaphor to describe the ubiquitous dust as a blanket covering the plant life. Color imagery and simile are employed to compare the red sun to fresh new blood. There is nothing comforting about that dust blanket or blood red sun, its color signaling danger and death. The reference to "ripe new blood" speaks of change, but certainly not for the better. The chapter’s tone is sombre, eerie and understated. Yet Steinbeck’s language gives us a sense of the farmers’ anxiety about the dust storms that attack their crops and will lead to them losing their family farms. They "stirred restlessly," the voices of the roosters are "muffled," the people know it will take "a long time for the dust to settle" – just like their altered lives.

Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move often.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. This is the first time that the men are seen in the novel, as they survey their ruined crops of corn, blanketed in dust and parched by drought. At this point the men are viewed as decision-makers and authority figures in the sharecropper families. But as the novel progresses the Joad family gender roles will change and there will be a shift from patriarchy to matriarchy with Ma Joad assuming a leading role. Meanwhile as the man stand by their fences, the image of the disappearing green conjures up a picture of hope being extinguished by the dust. The men’s shock at the destruction of their labor is suggested by how they become silent and almost motionless, as their families wait to see what they will do.

And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men – to feel whether this time the men would break. The women studied the men’s faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else remained.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. As the men watch their ruined corn, the women watch the men. This passage reveals the hope of the women and how they support their men, following the dust storm’s devastation of the crops. Interestingly the possibility of the men’s spirits breaking is mentioned, but not the women. This suggests that the ones carrying the torch of inner strength and hope in the family are the women. As long as their men refuse to give up and hold onto the hope of a better crop next time, then all is not lost, they believe.

The children stood near by, drawing figures in the dust with bare toes, and the children sent exploring senses out to see whether men and women would break.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. When the people emerge from their homes after the dust storm, the numbness and subdued feelings of the parents spills over onto the children. They don’t run about shouting and playing as they normally would. Instead they quietly draw figures in the all-pervasive dust, waiting to discover if their fathers and mothers will break or not.

After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant. Then the women knew that they were safe and that there was no break.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Initially the poor Oklahoma tenant farmers are confused and bewildered by the Dust Bowl’s destruction of their crops. But that reaction soon turns to anger and resistance, as they refuse to break and their instincts of survival and perseverance kick in. Despite the dying crops, the women believe that their men are not broken and their faces reflect hope. The desire of the fathers and husbands to be seen as men, breadwinners who can still provide for their family, is evident here. Instead of sinking into despair and hopelessness, the men maintain their dignity and react with anger.

Then the women knew that they were safe and that there was no break. Then they asked, What’ll we do? And the men replied, I don’t know. But it was all right. 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.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Themes of family, dignity, power of unity, survival and perseverance are addressed in this passage. It spells out how individuals in the family depend on each other when the sharecroppers are faced with a natural disaster. Relieved women and children get reassurance from the men that they will not be broken by the environmental destruction of the Dust Bowl. Instead of being beaten down, the men react with anger and resistance. Human dignity is maintained. The families believe that they will survive as long as the men can hold it together and not give up.

The women went into the houses to their work, and the children began to play, but cautiously at first. As the day went forward the sun became less red. It flared down on the dust-blanketed land.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1. Gender stereotypes are at play here here. The women, satisfied that their men aren’t "broken" but still "whole," return to their domestic duties and the children to their play. When the dust storm stikes, the women are the ones who keep life going in the household. Amid the grim and depressing picture painted in Chapter 1, there is evidence of hope as families carry on with normal routines and put their trust in their men. This hopefulness is reflected in color imagery, when the sun turns less red – the color of danger. Themes of perseverance and resistance are also touched on, with the sharecroppers refusing to be defeated by a hostile environment.

He was not over thirty. His eyes were very dark brown and there was a hint of brown pigment in his eyeballs. His cheek bones were high and wide, and strong deep lines cut down his cheeks, in curves beside his mouth. His upper lip was long, and since his teeth protruded, the lips stretched to cover them, for this man kept his lips closed. His hands were hard, with broad fingers and nails as thick and ridged as little clam shells. The space between thumb and forefinger and the hams of his hands were shiny with callus.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 2. This is a physical description of the hitchhiker, Tom Joad, the protagonist of the novel. He is at the prime of his life and has just been released from serving a four-year prison sentence for homicide. He is portrayed as strong and intense and a hard-working man.

The man’s clothes were new – all of them, cheap and new. His gray cap was so new that the visor was still stiff and the button still on, not shapeless and bulged as it would be when it had served for a while all the various purposes of a cap – carrying sack, towel, handkerchief. His suit was of cheap gray hardcloth and so new that there were creases in the trousers. His blue chambray shirt was stiff and smooth with filler. The coat was too big, the trousers too short, for he was a tall man.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 2. Tom Joad’s clothes are described as cheaply made, new, well pressed and badly fitting. He was given the clothes on being freed from prison.

"Sometimes a guy’ll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 2. Tom Joad cleverly attempts to guilt the truck driver into giving him a ride. He challenges him to be the "good guy" and defy his "rich bastard" employer’s "No Riders" sticker instruction on the truck’s windshield. In other words the driver will be a bad guy if he doesn’t. Tom is appealing to the driver’s sense of humanity and decency. He is also suggesting that working class "good guys" like them should stand together against the rich and powerful "bad guys."

He knew he was being trapped, but he couldn’t see a way out. And he wanted to be a good guy. He glanced again at the restaurant. "Scrunch down on the running board till we get around the bend," he said.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 2. After first refusing a lift because of the "No Riders" sicker on the truck, the driver decides to disobey the company rule not to pick up passengers. In agreeing to give Tom a ride, the driver finds common cause with Tom’s fiercely independent spirit, by offering two fingers to the establishment – his employer. He doesn’t wish to be seen as a company tool. Instead he decides at Tom’s prompting to take the side of the common people and show kindness to the hitchhiker at the risk of losing his job.

The questions of the driver had the tone of a subtle examination. He seemed to spread nets, to set traps, with his questions.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 2. The truck driver asks persistent question of Tom – about his new shoes, if is he going far, and if he has been doing a job. Tom is reluctant to share too much information with the driver. This passage speaks to the theme of the isolation of Tom Joad. Tom is an ex-con who has just been released from prison, having served time for killing a man in a fight, and is trying to adjust to the outside world.
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