liv’s Reviews > The Grapes of Wrath > Status Update

"Wrecks along the road, abandoned. Well, what happened to them? What happened yo the folks in that car? Did they walk? Where are they? Where does the courage come from? Where does the terrible faith come from?"

So easy that the wonder goes out of work, so efficient that the wonder goes out of land and the working of it, and with the wonder the deep understanding and the relation. And in the tractor man there grows the contempt that comes only to a stranger who has little understanding and no relation."

"And when a horse stops work and goes into the barn there is a life and a vitality left, there is a breathing and a warmth... There is a warmth of life in the barn, and the heat and smell of life. But when the motor of a tractor stops, it is as dead as the ore it came from. The heat goes out of it like the living heat that leaves a corpse... And this is easy and efficient.

"How'll it be not to know what land's outside the door? How if you wake up in the night and know—and know the willow tree's not there? Can you live without the willow tree? Well, no, you can't. The willow tree is you. The pain on that mattress there—that dreadful pain—that's you."

"When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, we'll have the rifle."

"There's a premium goes with this pile of junk and the bay horses—so beautiful—a packet of bitterness to grow in your house and to flower, some day. We could have saved you, but you cut us down, and soon you will be cut down and there'll be none of us to save you."