Ma Joad's Monologue "Grapes Of Wrath"

I'll be glad to get my hands on some cotton. That's the kind of pickin' I understand. Maybe. Maybe 20 days' work and maybe no days' work. We ain't got it till we get it. What's the matter, Ma? Gettin' scared? Scared? Ha! I ain't never gonna be scared no more. The odds, though. For a while, it looked as though we was beat. Good and beat. Looked like we didn't have nobody in the whole world but enemies. Like nobody was friendly no more. Made me feel kinda bad and scared, too. Like we was lost and nobody cared. You're the one that keeps us goin', Ma. I ain't no good no more, and I know it. Seems like I spend all my time these days thinkin' how it used to be. Thinkin' of home. I ain't never gonna see it no more. Well, Pa, a woman can change better than a man. A man lives sorta, well, in jerks. Baby's born, somebody dies, and that's a jerk. He gets a farm or loses it, and that's a jerk. With a woman, it's all in one flow like a stream. Little eddies and waterfalls, but the river, it goes right on. A woman looks at it that way. Well, maybe. Maybe we's sure takin' a beatin'. I know. That's what makes us tough. Rich fellas come up, and they die, and their kids ain't no good, and they die out. But we keep a-comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out, they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, cause we're the people.