1. “And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away.” – Chapter 14
2. “They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don’t get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat.” – Chapter 5
3. “In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” – Chapter 25
4. “Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments.” – Chapter 14
5. “I ain’t never been mad, and I ain’t now. But- God damn it!- there’s somepin’ jus’ ain’t right.” – Chapter 9
6. “They were not farm men any more, but migrant men.” – Chapter 4
7. “A fella ain’t got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody.” – Chapter 4
8. “There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.” – Chapter 4
9. “The people in flight from the terror behind- strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.” – Chapter 13
10. “She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken.” – Chapter 3
11. “How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can’t scare him–he has known a fear beyond every other.” – Chapter 19
12. “This is the beginning–from “I” to “we”. If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive.” – Chapter 14
13. “Tom said, “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 and they know supper’s ready.” – Chapter 28
14. “The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it.” – Chapter 5
15. “There’s a fierceness in man. But there’s also a goodness. The land is good. It’s like a woman, a woman you love and don’t understand.” – Chapter 6
16. “For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, and emerges ahead of his accomplishments.” – Chapter 14
17.”The quality of owning freezes you forever into ‘I’, and cuts you off forever from the ‘we’.” – Chapter 24
18. “They were migrant people. The wanted dignity and a share of the profits. They changed weed patches into gardens; they built homes.” – Chapter 19
19. “And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.” – Chapter 14
(Summary)
The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family, who are forced off their land in Oklahoma during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. They embark on a journey to California, hoping to find work and a better life, but encounter numerous challenges and injustices along the way. The novel also explores broader themes of social injustice, the power of collective action, and the struggle for human dignity in the face of poverty and oppression. Through vivid descriptions of the characters’ experiences and the landscapes they traverse, Steinbeck paints a powerful and poignant picture of the human toll of economic hardship and displacement.
