The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Poster

Henry Fonda: Tom Joad

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Quotes 

  • Tom Joad : I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled...

    Ma Joad : Oh, Tommy, they'd drag you out and cut you down just like they done to Casy.

    Tom Joad : They'd drag me anyways. Sooner or later they'd get me for one thing if not for another. Until then...

    Ma Joad : Tommy, you're not aimin' to kill nobody.

    Tom Joad : No, Ma, not that. That ain't it. It's just, well as long as I'm an outlaw anyways... maybe I can do somethin'... maybe I can just find out somethin', just scrounge around and maybe find out what it is that's wrong and see if they ain't somethin' that can be done about it. I ain't thought it out all clear, Ma. I can't. I don't know enough.

    Ma Joad : How am I gonna know about ya, Tommy? Why they could kill ya and I'd never know. They could hurt ya. How am I gonna know?

    Tom Joad : Well, maybe it's like Casy says. A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody, then...

    Ma Joad : Then what, Tom?

    Tom Joad : Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.

    Ma Joad : I don't understand it, Tom.

    Tom Joad : Me, neither, Ma, but - just somethin' I been thinkin' about.

  • Tom Joad : Seems like the government's got more interest in a dead man than a live one.

  • Tom Joad : That Casy. He might have been a preacher but he seen things clear. He was like a lantern. He helped me to see things clear.

  • Tom Joad : Takes no nerve to do something, ain't nothin' else you can do.

  • Tom Joad : Sure don't look none too prosperous.

  • Tom Joad : [At 1:18:50 into the movie, Tom Joad pulls off the road to change the left front tire. Jane Darwell gets out of the truck and sits on the front bumper. As Tom begins to get under the truck to jack the truck up, he says to Jane,]  "Ma, will you get the hell off'a there! It's gonna be heavy enough..." That somehow passed the Board of Review censors.

  • Tom Joad : If there was a law, they was workin' with maybe we could take it, but it ain't the law. They're workin' away our spirits, tryin' to make us cringe and crawl, takin' away our decency.

  • Tom Joad : Listen, what is these reds? Every time ya turn around, somebody's callin' somebody else a red! What IS these reds, anyway?

  • Tom Joad : [looking at the truck tire and talking to Casy]  Think it'll hold?

    Casy : If it does, it'll be a miracle out of scripture.

  • Tom Joad : What's the matter, Grandpa?

    Grandpa Joad : What's the matter? There's nothin' the matter. I just - I just ain't goin', that's all.

    Pa Joad : What you mean you ain't goin'? We got to go. We got no place to stay.

    Grandpa Joad : I ain't talkin' about you. I'm - I'm talkin' about me! I give'r a good goin' over all last night, and I'm a-stayin'!

    Pa Joad : But you can't do that, Grandpa! This here land's goin' under the tractor. We all got to get out.

    Grandpa Joad : All except me, and I'm stayin'!

    Tom Joad : What about Grandma?

    Grandpa Joad : Take her with ya!

See also

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs


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