In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. 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. 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 coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit.

There is a failure here that topples all our success. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. The Grapes of Wrath Paperback Maby John Steinbeck (Author), Robert DeMott (Introduction) 4.6 19,447 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle 0.90 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover 156.54 8 Used from 45.00 8 New from 144.75 1 Collectible from 175. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. 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. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground.

“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.

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