Grapes of Wrath Quotes

Question 1

Intercalary: community, loss

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Intercalary: formation of community

Answer 2

‘In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all.’

Question 3

Ma: community

Answer 3

‘Why, Tom, we’re the people that live. They ain’t gonna wipe us out. Why, we’re the people—we go on.’

Question 4

Intercalary: revolution

Answer 4

‘In the souls of the people, the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy’

Question 5

Tom Jr: community, socialism

Answer 5

‘Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there’

Question 6

Ma: family vs community

Answer 6

‘Or anybody. Use’ ta be the fambly was fust. It ain’t so now. It’s anybody.’

Question 7

Intercalary: gender roles

Answer 7

‘Men sang the words, and women hummed the tunes.’

Question 8

Casy: religion

Answer 8

‘There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do’

Question 9

Casy: leadership

Answer 9

‘I figgered there just wasn’t no hope for me, an’ I was a damned ol’ hypocrite. But I didn’t mean to be.’

Question 10

Tom Jr: socialism

Answer 10

‘Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of’

Question 11

Tom Jr: freedom

Answer 11

‘He says [freedom] makes him feel lonesome out there in the open havin’ to think what to do next.’

Question 12

Intercalary farmer: criminality

Answer 12

‘Who can we shoot? I don’t aim to starve to death before I kill the man that’s starving me.’

Question 13

Intercalary: poverty and criminality

Answer 13

‘Then the hungry men crowded the alleys behind the stores to beg for bread, to beg for rotting vegetables, to steal when they could.’

Question 14

Intercalary: business vs criminality

Answer 14

‘You go steal that tire an’ you’re a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.’

Question 15

Ma: poor vs rich

Answer 15

‘If you’re in trouble or hurt or need – go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.’

Question 16

Intercalary: monstrous organisations

Answer 16

‘The Bank – or the Company – needs – wants – insists – must have – as though the Bank or the Company were a monster’

Question 17

Casy: economic change

Answer 17

‘Somepin’s happening. I went up an’ I looked, an’ the houses us all empty, an’ the land is empty, an’ this whole country is empty.’

Question 18

The Ragged Man: poverty and lies

Answer 18

‘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’

Question 19

Ma: matriarch

Answer 19

‘She walked for the family and held her head straight for the family.’

Question 20

Pa: patriarch

Answer 20

‘The family became a unit […] Pa was the head of the family now.’