"I tried to tell you folks," he said. "Somepin it took me a year to find out. Took two kids dead, took my wife dead to show me. But I can’t tell you. I should of knew that. Nobody couldn’t tell me, neither. I can’t tell ya about them little fellas layin’ in the tent with their bellies puffed out an’ jus’ skin on their bones, an’ shiverin’ an’ whinin’ like pups, an’ me runnin’ aroun’ tryin’ to get work – not for money, not for wages!" he shouted.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. The angry ragged man at the campsite tells the Joads his distressing story about life for him and his family in California. Unable to get work in the state, his wife and two children died from starvation. The promised good life there turned out to be a lie for them.