Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family, forced from their home in Oklahoma, head to California in search of work and prosperity only to find poverty and despair. As a result of a crisis, Ma Joad emerges as a controlled, forceful, and selfless authority figure for the family. Ma Joad exhibits exelent self-control during the sufferings and frustrations of the Joad's journey. Ma knows that she is the backbone of the family, and that they will survive only if she remains calm. Ma keeps her self-control
really interesting is, Ma Joad. After reading the book, I felt so sad and depressed of what she had to go through in her life. While reading it, I compared my Mother to Ma Joad, I think they went through the same journey, not physically, but emotionally. We grew up in a really poor country, Cambodia, and we went through a similar situation. Ma Joad played a really important role in this family movement,
Steinbeck’s heart-rending, epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, set during The Great Depression, clearly depicts human struggles, futile dreams, and turbulent futures. Steinbeck introduces the Joad family and their constant struggles, but one member, Ma Joad, holds the family together with her courage, hope, and love. To begin, Ma Joad demonstrates her remarkable physical and emotional courage to her family. Because the Joad’s had lost their farm in Oklahoma, they were en route to California. Of course, they had
consider Ma Joad concrete then consider Pa limestone... The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, shows a whole family and their struggles. The grapes of Wrath is modeled after a biblical reference to the Israelites, god¹s chosen people. They also left their land, Egypt, and wandered into the desert for many years,searching in vain for a promised land, the land of milk and honey. A lot like the Israelites, many farmers in the middle of the country began migrating to California. The Joads I believe
During a period of arduous and zestful moments, the archetypal Earthmother can be identified in the Joad household. Ma Joad is the citadel in the family. She thinks and cares not for herself but for the family and people. Ma has helped keep the family stable, " She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook" (96). Even in times when food was scarce, Ma spared what she could to help those without. Ma said, "´ Look, you little fellas go an' get you each a flat stick an' I'll put what's lef' for
misfit to Madonna through the Joad’s journey. Rose of Sharon incessantly asks Ma Joad if “it’ll hurt the baby” throughout a majority of the novel, and adopts an attitude of superiority over others with her precious possession. She all but refuses to help the family pack the truck for California for fear of disturbing her fetus, even though she knows her help is needed. Her selfish antics and complaints are patiently absorbed by Ma, who tolerates her primarily because of her condition. Rose of Sharon knows
their dreams. Ma Joad is a woman of strength and hope who is the backbone of the family. She represents the Mother Nature archetype while she posses the physical aspect of guiding the family and staying strong when the family needs her most. Steinbecks shows the importance of ma's character by the syntax usage to describe ma. " Ma was heavy, but not fat; thick with child-bearing and work...her ankles, and her strong, broad, bare feet moved quickly and deftly over the floor", Ma is described
characters, and family leaders. In The Grapes of Wrath, the actions of Ma Joad are used to portray her as the strongest character. We can see this throughout the book even as early as chapter ten, in this chapter the reader feels sympathy for her having been permanently removed from the land and home she has known for so many years. Despite all of the pain caused from this, we are taken to the scene on page 95, where Ma is alone in her empty house. She picks up an old and tattered box, filled
migrants are dumb, uneducated people in 1939. They lower wages for fruit-picking at farms which were the only jobs offered to the migrants because of their proposed lack of intelligence. But migrants do not necessarily choose not to educate themselves. Ma Joad announces to her family that she will send her two youngest children to school once they are settled. Connie, Rose of Sharon’s husband, also plans out his goals with Rose of Sharon saying, “An’ he’s [Connie] gonna study at home, maybe radio, so he
description of the American farmers of the Dust Bowl in the midthirties of the twentieth century. Tom Joad was released from the Oklahoma state penitentiary where he had served a sentence for killing a man in self-defense. He traveled homeward through a region made barren by drought and dust storms. On the way he met Jim Casy an expreacher; the pair went together to the home of Tom's people. They found the Joad place deserted. While Tom and Casy were wondering what had happened, Muley Graves, a diehard tenant
Contrasting Rich and Poor in Grapes of Wrath One of the ironies of Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath was that, as Ma Joad said, "If your in trouble or hurt or need -- go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help -- the only ones."(pg 335) The irony is that if you need something you have to go to the people who have nothing. There are many examples of this in the book. The first example of this is at the truck station in chapter 15 when the restaurant owner and waitress give the family
John Steinbeck presents the character Ma Joad who serves an important role as the rock that keeps the family together. The Joad family, apart from many families in Oklahoma, is forced to leave their homes in search of work and better opportunities; California not only leaves them in poverty but despair. But through it all Ma Joad is the leader of the family that exhibits selflessness in order to protect and secure her family. Ma Joad is the mother of the Joad family and the leader. Her features displayed
when Ma had to slowly take control over her family and progressively lead the Joads out of their own familial depression. The role of women and their status within the book is elastic throughout the novel and breaks the common convention at the time. As a reader, we see Ma Joad often assume a male role, and we see Tom Joad display a more traditionally feminine role as time progresses in the story. The novel complicates its own understanding of women
four years of a manslaughter conviction, Tom Joad makes his way back to his family’s farm amid the desolation of the Dust Bowl. He meets Jim Casy, a former preacher who gave up his calling out of a belief that all life is holy, and that simply being among the people as an equal is a sacred endeavor. Jim accompanies Tom to his home; when they find it deserted, fronted by withered crops, they travel to Tom’s Uncle John’s house, where they find the Joads preparing for a long trip to California in search
surmounted successfully. Ma Joad and Tom Joad are two strong characters who overcame laborious predicaments. Their powerful characteristics helped to encourage those that were struggling. In fact, one principal character who was involved in a difficult situation was Ma Joad. She was a wife and mother whose only occupation in life was a housewife. She lived in an unfair time period; women were forced to do almost everything that the man commanded. However, Ma Joad was different. Ever since
‘families’ in that the Joads are a factual one and the body of migrant workers as the other. The Joads are actual blood together, but their loyalty to one another is the true essence of their family-hood. The Joads stand as ideal figures in their refusal to be broken by the circumstances against them. Each character undergoes tremendous heartache and burden, yet they stay true to their plans and never give up. While the Joad family is moving from Oklahoma to California, Ma Joad holds the family together
ownership, not a paper with numbers on it (p.45). Steinbeck follows the Joad family as they leave their farm to forge a new life in the land of opportunity - California - where life is golden and jobs are abundant . . . or so they think. They are met with distrust and dislike by the residents of the cities they pass through, and they have little success in finding jobs with salaries that they can survive on. Once the Joads reach California, they discover that the situation there is much the same;
them. The love in ones heart is not always as noticeable as we would like it to be; yet it is always present if someone truly loves another. It is hard not to have such a strong and desirable love for someone you have missed in the past. Ma and Tom Joad had so much love for each other, and it is rather funny how no one really noticed it but them. They always looked out for one and other during the hard times, it was the helping hand of the other that made them survive. "She crawled close
In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck portrays the Joad family’s long and burdensome journey to California. The emotional and physical backbone of the family is Ma Joad. Ma’s main responsibility is to take care of the family, provide them with nourishment, warmth, healing, and encouragement. The family will only experience fear and physical suffering when Ma does, so she strives to withhold these emotions in herself. The family looks to Ma for amusement, and she brings great happiness out of little
Ma Joad in the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents