The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole.

men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.

some worshiped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and from feeling.

The Bank—or the Company—needs—wants—insists—must have—as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them.

Capitalism commentary, personifying it

Don’t they make explosives out of cotton? And uniforms? Get enough wars and cotton’ll hit the ceiling.

and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going.

How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it.

And now they were weary and frightened because they had gone against a system they did not understand and it had beaten them.

it. An’ Grampa didn’ die tonight. He died the minute you took ’im off the place.’’

hating time that rarely makes them beautiful and always makes them old.

“I’m gettin’ bad,’’ he said. “I feel sin.’’ “You can’t sin none,’’ said Pa. “You ain’t got no money.

the break had not come; and the break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath.