The Grapes of Wrath Quotes

The stream eddied and boiled against the bank. Then, from up the stream there came a ripping crash. The beam of the flashlight showed a great cottonwood toppling. The men stopped to watch. The branches of the tree sank into the water and edged around with the current while the stream dug out the little roots. Slowly the tree was freed, and slowly it edged down the stream. The weary men watched, their mouths hanging open. The tree moved slowly down. Then a branch caught on a stump, snagged and held…The tree moved and tore the bank. A little stream slipped through. Pa threw himself forward and jammed mud in the break. The water piled against the tree. And then the bank washed quickly down, washed around ankles, around knees. The men broke and ran, and the current worked smoothly into the flat, under cars, under automobiles.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Pa Joad’s quick thinking in constructing a dam saves the family for a short time. But in the end nature wins. The dam holding the swollen stream back is ripped apart by an uprooted great cottonwood tree. The current sweeps down to the cars and the Joads’ engine is flooded. There is irony here in that the men break and run, since in the previous chapter we are told that the men don’t break. The tree moving down to the embankment, breaking a hole in it and releasing a flood of water down to the cars and killing the Joads’ engine is symbolic and foreshadowing. We soon learn that as this is happening, Rose of Sharon is laboring through and delivering her stillbirth in the Joads’ boxcar. One outside event mirrors another unseen drama inside. A depressing picture of hopelessness is presented in this passage.

The air was fetid and close with the smell of the birth. Uncle John clambered in and held himself upright against the side of the car. Mrs. Wainwright left her work and came to Pa. She pulled him by the elbow toward the corner of the car. She picked up a lantern and held it over an apple box in the corner. On a newspaper lay a blue shriveled little mummy.
"Never breathed," said Mrs. Wainwright softly. "Never was alive."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Despite the Joads doing everything to ensure Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy goes well, she gives birth to a stillborn baby. With the family’s truck engine flooding when a makeshift dam fails, nature has struck again. It seems as though there is no hope for the Joads. This is a tragic and heart-wrenching scene, with Rose of Sharon’s baby meant to be a symbol of hope for the Joads.

"S’pose we was down. You’d a give us a han’."
"Yes," Ma said, "we would."
"Or anybody."
"Or anybody. Use’ ta be the fambly was fust. It ain’t so now. It’s anybody. Worse off we get, the more we got to do."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Ma Joad is talking to Mrs. Wainwright about people’s responsibility to help each other. For Ma, the needs of immediate family members were her first and only care. But she has learned from experience on the road that her duty is now to the greater community of disadvantaged people. This speaks to the novel’s theme of the individual versus the community. It also reflects the idea of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s "Over-Soul."

"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.

The family huddled on the platforms, silent and fretful. The water was six inches deep in the car before the flood spread evenly over the embankment and moved into the cotton field on the other side.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. This is an example of situational irony, where the outcome is the opposite of what is expected. The Joads left Oklahoma for a better life because a disastrous drought there resulted in the Dust Bowl. Now in California they find themselves victims of a flood.

"It’s time for it." And then she turned to the car door, where the men lay. "We’re a-gettin’ outa here," she said savagely, "gettin’ to higher groun’. An’ you’re comin’ or you ain’t comin’, but I’m takin’ Rosasharn an’ the little fellas outa here."

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Ma Joad demonstrates her resiliance after the camp flood and asserts her authority over the men, Pa and Al. She delares that she is taking Rose of Sharon and the younger children to higher ground and the men can follow or not. Despite her family taking hit after hit, Ma with her indomitable nature still perseveres.

"He’s dyin’, I tell you! He’s starvin’ to death, I tell you."
"Hush," said Ma. She looked at Pa and Uncle John standing helplessly gazing at the sick man. She looked at Rose of Sharon huddled in the comfort. Ma’s eyes passed Rose of Sharon’s eyes, and then came back to them. And the two women looked deep into each other. The girl’s breath came short and gasping.
She said "Yes."
Ma smiled. "I knowed you would. I knowed!"

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. While walking the highway the Joads shelter in a barn from a downpour and encounter a starving man and his son. The boy cries out for help for his dying father. In this scene we see in action Ma Joad’s earlier comment that the poor are the ones who help if you are in need. Ma realizes that her family can save the man from starving to death. Aware that Rose of Sharon’s breasts are still full of the milk meant to feed her stillborn baby, she glances at her daughter. Her unspoken request is understood by Rose of Sharon, who in a remarkable act of kindness, generosity and self-sacrifice immediately says yes. This powerful scene closes the novel and reflects the idea of Emerson’s "Over-Soul," the universal soul that connects everyone, a philosophy that finds expression through the character of Jim Casy. Rose of Sharon’s decision to nurse the stranger back to life is also a strong message of hope in the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. "You got to," she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. "There!" she said. "There." Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.

– John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 30. Rose of Sharon is often compared to Mary, the mother of Jesus, because of this final scene of self-sacrifice and act of altruism. After her own loss and hardship, she lies down beside the starving man in the barn, guides his mouth to her breast and breastfeeds him. Despite losing her own baby, she offers life to a total stranger with her breastmilk. Her suckling of the dying man evokes the image of The Pietà, the Christian art work depicting Mary holding the body of Jesus after he is taken down from the cross. In this closing passage, Steinbeck present a message of hope, compassion and kindness, to be found even in a world of inequality and injustice. This is the Promised Land that poor migrant families have arrived at, where new life can come out of tragedy, humanity endures amid hardship and desperation, and each of us is part of the one human family. Rose of Sharon’s gesture is the living expression of Jim Casy’s belief that we are all part of the one great soul.
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