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Tom Joad is the novel’s protagonist. At the beginning of the novel, he has just been paroled after serving a four-year prison sentence for killing a man in self-defense. He is strong, stoic, principled, and observant; during the trip to California, the Joad family comes to rely on Tom for precisely these qualities. Tom is very principled, and injustice enrages him. This rage can get the better of him—the most notable example of this is when Tom retaliates for the murder of Jim Casyby killing the offending policeman. Over the course of the novel, Tom comes to realize the importance and strength of the migrant worker community, and at the novel's close, he has decided to dedicate himself to organizing the workers to improve their quality of life.
Tom Joad Quotes in The Grapes of Wrath
The The Grapes of Wrath quotes below are all either spoken by Tom Joad or refer to Tom Joad. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“…sometimes a guy'll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.”
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Chapter 10
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And now they [the Joads] were weary and frightened because they had gone against a system they did not understand and it had beaten them.
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Chapter 28
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“But now I been thinkin' what he said, an' I can remember—all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an' he foun' he didn' have no soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn' think I was even listenin'. But I know now a fella ain't no good alone.”
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Tom Joad Quotes in The Grapes of Wrath
The The Grapes of Wrath quotes below are all either spoken by Tom Joad or refer to Tom Joad. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“…sometimes a guy'll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
And now they [the Joads] were weary and frightened because they had gone against a system they did not understand and it had beaten them.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28
Quotes
“But now I been thinkin' what he said, an' I can remember—all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an' he foun' he didn' have no soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain't no good, 'cause his little piece of a soul wasn't no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn' think I was even listenin'. But I know now a fella ain't no good alone.”
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