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this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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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 certificate- 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 quick-lime, 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.
I finally read this book a year or two ago after putting it off because it was recommended by the same teacher who made us read a bunch of old slop. Honestly one of the best books I’ve ever read in my entire life. 100% should be on everyone’s reading list.
If you liked it and want another Steinbeck banger set in the Great Depression you should check out In Dubious Battle. For some reason it gets left out when The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are mentioned, but it is my favorite of the three. It's about an apple pickers strike in California, and follows the communist organizers trying to lead it.
Might be connected.
I remember really liking East of Eden too, but think I was like 12 when I read it.
Looks like the audiobook comes to my library in like a week, what serendipitous timing, thanks for the recommendation!
Hell yeah 8⁷
It's a book that I personally learned to appreciate more over the years, and would also recommend to anyone
Which book?
This was basically the titular quote from Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", which largely is about the plight of tenant farmers during the dust bowl and great depression.
Grapes of Wrath
God DAMN Steinbeck could write some words.