Muley Graves quotes from The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Muley Graves

What was the use? He was right, and there wasn't a thing in the world I could do about it....There wasn't nothin' to eat, but I couldn't leave. Somethin' just wouldn't let me. So now I just wander around and sleep wherever I am. I used to tell myself that I was lookin' out for things, so that when the folks come back everything'd be all right. But I know'd it wasn't true. There ain't nothin' to look out fer. There ain't nobody ever comin' back. They're gone! And me, I'm just an old graveyard ghost. That's all in the world I am.

Tom

What happened? How come they got to get off? We lived here fifty years, same place.

Muley

Everybody's got to get off. Everybody's leavin', goin' out to California. Your folks, my folks, everybody's folks. Everybody except me. I ain't gettin' off.

Tom

Who done it?

Muley

Listen. [Muley gestures toward the howling wind] That's some of what done it. The dusters. They start it anyways. Blowin' like this year after year. Blowin' the land away. Blowin' the crops away. And blowin' us away now.

Tom

You crazy?

Muley

Some say that I am.

The fact of the matter, Muley, after what them dusters done to the land, the tenant system don't work no more. You don't even break even, much less show a profit. Why, one man and a tractor can handle twelve or fourteen of these places. You just pay him a wage and take all the crop.

Muley

Yeah, but uh, we couldn't do on any less than what our share is now. Why, the children ain't gettin' enough to eat as it is, and they're so ragged. We'd be ashamed if everybody else's children wasn't the same way.

I can't help that. All I know is, I got my orders. They told me to tell you to get off, and that's what I'm tellin' ya.

Muley

You mean get off of my own land?

Now don't go to blamin' me! It ain't my fault.

Muley's son

Who's fault is it?

You know who owns the land. The Shawnee Land and Cattle Company.

Muley

And who's the Shawnee Land and Cattle Company

It ain't nobody. It's a company.

Muley's son

They got a President, ain't they? They got somebody who knows what a shotgun's for, ain't they?

Oh son, it ain't his fault, because the bank tells him what to do.

Muley's son

All right, where's the bank?

Tulsa. What's the use of pickin' on him? He ain't nothin' but the manager. And he's half-crazy hisself tryin' to keep up with his orders from the East.

Muley

Then who do we shoot?

Brother, I don't know. If I did, I'd tell ya. I just don't know who's to blame.

Muley

I'm right here to tell you, mister, there ain't nobody gonna push me off my land! My grandpaw took up this land seventy years ago. My paw was born here. We was all born on it. An' some of us was killed on it. An' some of us died on it. That's what makes it arn. Bein' born on it and workin' on it and dyin', dyin' on it. An' not no piece of paper with writin' on it.