How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 9. These powerful and shocking lines describe the migrant women’s feelings about being torn from their homes and prized possessions and having to leave them behind for burning. The cold, short, quick staccato style emphasizes the pain of having to burn their past.