The Grapes of Wrath Wealth Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

And at last the owner men came to the point. The tenant system won't work anymore. One man on a tractor can take the place of twelve or fourteen families. Pay him a wage and take all the crop. We have to do it. We don't like to do it. But the monster's sick. Something's happened to the monster. (5.14)

The monster is hungry for money, just as the tenant farmers are hungry for food. The term "monster" isn't the nicest term or nickname for an economy. We don't know about you, but when we think of monsters, we think of things that want to eat us. In this way the landowners pitch the economy as the enemy of the tenant farmers, as they were two opposing teams.

Quote #5

The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it. (5.24)

The bank is not a human thing, and it's out of control. If it is not a human thing, then it can't possibly understand humans. All this monster talk is making us feel like we're reading Frankenstein instead of The Grapes of Wrath. The monster has power over the people who built it.

Quote #6

[the tenant farmers:] But if we go, where'll we go? How'll we go? We got no money. (5.31)

Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you food, water, gasoline, a bed, and a roof over your head.