Status Updates From The Grapes of Wrath

"Wisht we could stay here. Got to be goin' "fore long.
I like this here. Folks gits along nice; an', God Awmighty, why can't they let us do it 'stead of keepin' us miserable an' puttin' us in jail? I swear to God they gonna push us into fightin' if they don't quit a-worryin' us." Then he calmed his voice. "We jes' got to keep peaceful," he reminded himself. "The committee got no right to fly off"n the handle."

^”It’s too much—livin’ too many lives. Up ahead they’s a thousan’ lives we might live, but when it comes, it’ll on’y be one.”^

^The houses were vacant, and a vacant house falls quickly apart.^

^And this is easy and efficient. So easy that the wonder goes out of work, so efficient that the wonder goes out of land and the working of it, and with the wonder the deep understanding and the relationship.^

^There is a warmth of life in the barn, and the heat and smell of life. But when the motor of a tractor stops, it is as dead as the ore it came from. The heat goes out of it like the living heat that leaves a corpse.^

"Ain't you thinkin' what's it gonna be like when we get there? Ain't
you scared it won't be nice like we thought?"
"No," she said quickly. "No, I ain't. You can't do that. I can't do that.
It's too much—livin' too many lives. Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes, it'll on'y be one. If I go ahead on all of
'em, it's too much. You got to live ahead 'cause you're so young,”

cont’d

And since, when a joyful thing happened, they looked to see whether joy was on her, it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.^