The Grapes of Wrath (59 page)

Then the grapes—we can’t make good wine. People can’t buy good wine. Rip the grapes from the vines, good grapes, rotten grapes, wasp-stung grapes. Press stems, press dirt and rot.

But there’s mildew and formic acid in the vats.

Add sulphur and tannic acid.

The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals.

Oh, well. It has alcohol in it, anyway. They can get drunk.

The little farmers watched debt creep up on them like the tide. They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted and could not pick the crop. And the men of knowledge have worked, have considered, and the fruit is rotting on the ground, and the decaying mash in the wine vats is poisoning the air. And taste the wine—no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic acid and alcohol.

This little orchard will be a part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner.

This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries too. And four pears peeled and cut in half, cooked and canned, still cost fifteen cents. And the canned pears do not spoil. They will last for years.

The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow.

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles
to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.

And the smell of rot fills the country.

Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

In the Weedpatch camp, on an evening when the long, barred clouds hung over the set sun and inflamed their edges, the Joad family lingered after their supper. Ma hesitated before she started to do the dishes.

“We got to do somepin,” she said. And she pointed at Winfield. “Look at ’im,” she said. And when they stared at the little boy, “He’s a-jerkin’ an’ a-twistin’ in his sleep. Lookut his color.” The members of the family looked at the earth again in shame. “Fried dough,” Ma said. “One month we been here. An’ Tom had five days’ work. An’ the rest of you scrabblin’ out ever’ day, an’ no work. An’ scairt to talk. An’ the money gone. You’re scairt to talk it out. Ever’ night you jus’ eat, an’ then you get wanderin’ away. Can’t bear to talk it out. Well, you got to. Rosasharn ain’t far from due, an’ lookut her color. You got to talk it out. Now don’t none of you get up till we figger somepin out. One day’ more grease an’ two days’flour, an’ ten potatoes. You set here an’ get busy!”

They looked at the ground. Pa cleaned his thick nails with his pocket knife. Uncle John picked at a splinter on the box he sat on. Tom pinched his lower lip and pulled it away from his teeth.

He released his lip and said softly, “We been a-lookin’, Ma. Been walkin’ out sence we can’t use the gas no more. Been goin’ in ever’ gate, walkin’ up to ever’ house, even when we knowed they wasn’t gonna be nothin’. Puts a weight on ya. Goin’ out lookin’ for somepin you know you ain’t gonna find.”

Ma said fiercely, “You ain’t got the right to get discouraged. This here fambly’s goin’ under. You jus’ ain’t got the right.”

Pa inspected his scraped nail. “We gotta go,” he said. “We didn’ wanta go. It’s nice here, an’ folks is nice here. We’re feared we’ll have to go live in one a them Hoovervilles.”

“Well, if we got to, we got to. First thing is, we got to eat.”

Al broke in. “I got a tankful a gas in the truck. I didn’ let nobody get into that.”

Tom smiled. “This here Al got a lot of sense along with he’s randypandy.”

“Now you figger,” Ma said. “I ain’t watchin’ this here fambly starve no more. One day’ more grease. That’s what we got. Come time for Rosasharn to lay in, she got to be fed up. You figger!”

“This here hot water an’ toilets —” Pa began.

“Well, we can’t eat no toilets.”

Tom said, “They was a fella come by today lookin’ for men to go to Marysville. Pickin’ fruit.”

“Well, why don’ we go to Marysville?” Ma demanded.

“I dunno,” said Tom. “Didn’ seem right, somehow. He was so anxious. Wouldn’ say how much the pay was. Said he didn’ know exactly.”

Ma said, “We’re a-goin’ to Marysville. I don’ care what the pay is. We’re a-goin’.”

“It’s too far,” said Tom. “We ain’t got the money for gasoline. We couldn’ get there. Ma, you say we got to figger. I ain’t done nothin’ but figger the whole time.”

Uncle John said, “Feller says they’s cotton a-comin’ in up north, near a place called Tulare. That ain’t very far, the feller says.”

“Well, we got to git goin’, an’ goin’ quick. I ain’t a-settin’ here no longer, no matter how nice.” Ma took up her bucket and walked toward the sanitary unit for hot water.

“Ma gets tough,” Tom said. “I seen her a-gettin’ mad quite a piece now. She jus’ boils up.”

Pa said with relief, “Well, she brang it into the open, anyways. I been layin’ at night a-burnin’ my brains up. Now we can talk her out, anyways.”

Ma came back with her bucket of steaming water. “Well,” she demanded, “figger anything out?”

“Jus’ workin’ her over,” said Tom. “Now s’pose we jus’ move up north where that cotton’s at. We been over this here country. We know they ain’t nothin’ here. S’pose we pack up an’ shove north. Then when the cotton’s ready, we’ll be there. I kinda like to get my han’s aroun’ some cotton. You got a full tank, Al?”

“Almos’—’bout two inches down.”

“Should get us up to that place.”

Ma poised a dish over the bucket. “Well?” she demanded.

Tom said, “You win. We’ll move on, I guess. Huh, Pa?”

“Guess we got to,” Pa said.

Ma glanced at him. “When?”

“Well—no need waitin’. Might’s well go in the mornin’.”

“We got to go in the mornin’. I tol’ you what’s lef’.”

“Now, Ma, don’ think I don’ wanta go. I ain’t had a good gutful to eat in two weeks. ’Course I filled up, but I didn’ take no good from it.”

Ma plunged the dish into the bucket. “We’ll go in the mornin’,” she said.

Pa sniffled. “Seems like times is changed,” he said sarcastically. “Time was when a man said what we’d do. Seems like women is tellin’ now. Seems like it’s purty near time to get out a stick.”

Ma put the clean dripping tin dish out on a box. She smiled down at her work. “You get your stick, Pa,” she said. “Times when they’s food an’ a place to set, then maybe you can use your stick an’ keep your skin whole. But you ain’t a-doin’ your job, either a-thinkin’ or a-workin’. If you was, why, you could use your stick, an’ women folks’d sniffle their nose an’ creep-mouse aroun’. But you jus’ get you a stick now an’ you ain’t lickin’ no woman; you’re a-fightin’, ’cause I got a stick all laid out too.”

Pa grinned with embarrassment. “Now it ain’t good to have the little fellas hear you talkin’ like that,” he said.

“You get some bacon inside the little fellas ’fore you come tellin’ what else is good for ’em,” said Ma.

Pa got up in disgust and moved away, and Uncle John followed him.

Ma’s hands were busy in the water, but she watched them go, and she said proudly to Tom, “He’s all right. He ain’t beat. He’s like as not to take a smack at me.”

Tom laughed. “You jus’ a-treadin’ him on?”

“Sure,” said Ma. “Take a man, he can get worried an’ worried, an’ it eats out his liver, an’ purty soon he’ll jus’ lay down and die with his heart et out. But if you can take an’ make ’im mad, why, he’ll be awright. Pa, he didn’ say nothin’, but he’s mad now. He’ll show me now. He’s awright.”

Al got up. “I’m gonna walk down the row,” he said.

“Better see the truck’s ready to go,” Tom warned him.

“She’s ready.”

“If she ain’t, I’ll turn Ma on ya.”

“She’s ready.” Al strolled jauntily along the row of tents.

Tom sighed. “I’m a-gettin’ tired, Ma. How ’bout makin’ me mad?”

“You got more sense, Tom. I don’ need to make you mad. I got to lean on you. Them others—they’re kinda strangers, all but you. You won’t give up, Tom.”

The job fell on him. “I don’ like it,” he said. “I wanta go out like Al. An’ I wanta get mad like Pa, an’ I wanta get drunk like Uncle John.”

Ma shook her head. “You can’t, Tom. I know. I knowed from the time you was a little fella. You can’t. They’s some folks that’s just theirself an’ nothin’ more. There’s Al—he’s jus’ a young fella after a girl. You wasn’t never like that, Tom.”

“Sure I was,” said Tom. “Still am.”

“No you ain’t. Ever’thing you do is more’n you. When they sent you up to prison I knowed it. You’re spoke for.”

“Now, Ma—cut it out. It ain’t true. It’s all in your head.”

She stacked the knives and forks on top of the plates. “Maybe. Maybe it’s in my head. Rosasharn, you wipe up these here an’ put ’em away.”

The girl got breathlessly to her feet and her swollen middle hung out in front of her. She moved sluggishly to the box and picked up a washed dish.

Tom said, “Gettin’ so tightful it’s a-pullin’ her eyes wide.”

“Don’t you go a-jollyin’,” said Ma. “She’s doin’ good. You go ’long an’ say goo’-by to anybody you wan’.”

“O.K.,” he said. “I’m gonna see how far it is up there.”

Ma said to the girl, “He ain’t sayin’ stuff like that to make you feel bad. Where’s Ruthie an’ Winfiel’?”

“They snuck off after Pa. I seen ’em.”

“Well, leave ’em go.”

Rose of Sharon moved sluggishly about her work. Ma inspected her cautiously. “You feelin’ pretty good? Your cheeks is kinda saggy.”

“I ain’t had milk like they said I ought.”

“I know. We jus’ didn’ have no milk.”

Rose of Sharon said dully, “Ef Connie hadn’ went away, we’d a had a little house by now, with him studyin’ an’ all. Would a got milk like I need. Would a had a nice baby. This here baby ain’t gonna be no good. I ought a had milk.” She reached in her apron pocket and put something into her mouth.

Ma said, “I seen you nibblin’ on somepin. What you eatin’?”

“Nothin’.”

“Come on, what you nibblin’ on?”

“Jus’ a piece a slack lime. Foun’ a big hunk.”

“Why, tha’s jus’ like eatin’ dirt.”

“I kinda feel like I wan’ it.”

Ma was silent. She spread her knees and tightened her skirt. “I know,” she said at last. “I et coal oncet when I was in a fambly way. Et a big piece a coal. Granma says I shouldn’. Don’ you say that about the baby. You got no right even to think it.”

“Got no husban’! Got no milk!”

Ma said, “If you was a well girl, I’d take a whang at you. Right in the face.” She got up and went inside the tent. She came out and stood in front of Rose of Sharon, and she held out her hand. “Look!” The small gold earrings were in her hand. “These is for you.”

The girl’s eyes brightened for a moment, and then she looked aside. “I ain’t pierced.”

“Well, I’m a-gonna pierce ya.” Ma hurried back into the tent. She came back with a cardboard box. Hurriedly she threaded a needle, doubled the thread and tied a series of knots in it. She threaded a second needle and knotted the thread. In the box she found a piece of cork.

“It’ll hurt. It’ll hurt.”

Ma stepped to her, put the cork in back of the ear lobe and pushed the needle through the ear, into the cork.

The girl twitched. “It sticks. It’ll hurt.”

“No more’n that.”

“Yes, it will.”

“Well, then. Le’s see the other ear first.” She placed the cork and pierced the other ear.

“It’ll hurt.”

“Hush!” said Ma. “It’s all done.”

Rose of Sharon looked at her in wonder. Ma clipped the needles off and pulled one knot of each thread through the lobes.

“Now,” she said. “Ever’ day we’ll pull one knot, and in a couple weeks it’ll be all well an’ you can wear ’em. Here—they’re your’n now. You can keep ’em.”

Rose of Sharon touched her ears tenderly and looked at the tiny spots of blood on her fingers. “It didn’ hurt. Jus’ stuck a little.”

“You oughta been pierced long ago,” said Ma. She looked at the girl’s face, and she smiled in triumph. “Now get them dishes all done up. Your baby gonna be a good baby. Very near let you have a baby without your ears was pierced. But you’re safe now.”

“Does it mean somepin?”

“Why, ’course it does,” said Ma. “’Course it does.”

Al strolled down the street toward the dancing platform. Outside a neat little tent he whistled softly, and then moved along the street. He walked to the edge of the grounds and sat down in the grass.