Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Book Review: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

My feelings about this book are as follows:
Wow. What? That sucks. Are you serious? Ahh that writing! That's amazing, but I don't know what it means. That's amazing, and I DO know what it means. Steinbeck is a genius. Steinbeck is horrible.This is terrible. This is wonderful.
And to sum it all up, READ IT!
And now, a summary of The Grapes of Wrath in the form of great one-liners:
"Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land - in California, where the fruit grows. We'll start over. But you can't start. Only a baby can start."
"How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it."
"When the corrugated iron doors are shut, he goes home, and his home is not the land."
"The whole United States ain't that big. It ain't big enough. There ain't room enough for you an' me, for your kind an' my kind, for rich and poor together all in one country, for thieves and honest men."
"Where does the courage come from? Where does the terrible faith come from?"
"I lost my land, a single tractor took my land. I am alone and I am bewildered."
"For the quality of owning freezes you forever into 'I', and cuts you off forever from the 'we'."
"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."
"Repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed."
"They had not grown up in the paradoxes of industry. Their senses were still sharp to the ridiculousness of the industrial life."
"The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line."
"And the people nodded, and perhaps the fire spurted a little light and showed their eyes looking in on themselves."
"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
"'Learnin' it all a time, ever' day. If you're in trouble or hurt or need - go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.'"
"I'll be ever'where - wherever you look. 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 an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build, why, I'll be there."
"And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger, and anger at the hungry people changed to fear of them."
"He held the apple box against his chest. And then he leaned over and set the box in the stream and steadied it with his hand. He said fiercely, 'Go down an' tell 'em. Go down in the street an' rot an' tell 'em that way. That's the way you can talk. Don' even know if you was a boy or a girl. Ain't gonna find out. Go on down now, an' lay in the street. Maybe they'll know then.'" 
Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

  1. I have to read this for a summer assignment. Now I'm actually interested!!! Great quotes! Thank you!!

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