"Change" Quotes

In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, the characters go through extreme changes in their life, and change is one of the main themes found in the novel- and is probably the most important one. There are many quotes in the novel that give the reader some insight into the emotional and physical changes going on, but there are several that really stick out.

"Fella gets use' to a place, it's hard to go."- Chapter Six

It was extremely hard for the Joad family to leave their farm in Oklahoma after the destruction of the Dust Bowl, not only because they had lived there their whole entire lives, but because their parents, and their parents had lived their entire lives their as well. They had tended to the land, coaxed crop out of it, and then suddenly, that was all gone. The Joad's have to start all over and go to a place they've only ever heard about.

"But you can't start. Only a baby can...the drought years are us, we can't start again." -Chapter Nine

This quote is spoken by some of the tenant farmers. They are practically hopeless because it is seemingly impossible to them to be able to start over fresh, and the best they can hope for is that their children will get that opportunity instead. The Joad's realize that there is no real way to start their lives completely over- they have already started living.

"This you may say of man- when theories change...only half a step, never the full step back." -Chapter Fourteen

When we today think about change, we usually think of things that happen easily and naturally- our ages, our friends, and the little things in life that we take for granted. But the change that the Joad family, along with thousands of other families in their same situation, is not easy in the slightest. The change they experience is forced upon them, and even when they accept it, life does not get any easier.