<span>“You’re buying sorrow that
can’t talk” means that the seller is experiencing hardships and that selling
his possessions is similar to selling his life. </span>
<span> </span>
<span>In the book’s context, it
depicts the bitterness of the farmers towards the people who are purchasing his
possessions at such a cheap price – lower than how much he had bought them for –
in a time when the people should have been showing their support to each other.</span>
This line is taken from a part of the novel where Pa Joad is
at a distress sale, which is a type of sale where people sell things (like the
name suggests) when they are in distress and are in dire need of money. The context of this line follows: “you are buying years of work, toil in the
sun; you’re buying a sorrow that can’t talk.”
With personification, it is communicated that what is being purchased
represents difficult times.
