The Role Of The Joad Family In The Grapes Of Wrath

In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the Joad family to show the struggle of the migrant farmers during the dust bowl. He shows the hardships trials and failure of the family while using intercalary chapters to show the perspective of the people as whole from the average migrant farmer to owners of the business that hires these people. John Steinbeck conveys the quality of the family's persistence to endure hardships by moving from their home, to the separation of their family, and through the death of Rose of Sharon's baby. When Tom arrived home from prison, he had not realized that his family was forcefully moved out of their home, and they were living with his Uncle John. The family was very happy to see Tom even his mom almost

She is having her baby finally, but the babies is already died. This breaks her heart and if she wasn't in a deep depression then she is now. This baby was her only hope, and she lost it. The death of her baby is more symbolic then it is sad. As Uncle John said," Go down an' tell'em... That's the way you can talk" (Steinbeck 609). The baby died from all the hardships of the migrants. The starvation and lack of money to be able to take care of a pregnant lady. She decides on her own the only way to move on is to save this starving man. Ditsky states that ," right use of the body's intimate reproductive faculties to promote Life itself"( Ditsky). She drops all of self comfort and allows this old man who gave everything to his son so he can survive the use of her own breast milk. She does this on her own. She only looks Ma in the eyes before telling everyone else to leave. She truly does enjoy saving that mans because she finally gets to use a motherly touch to nurture a life. She truly learned to endure pain, and still do what is right for people. Ma couldn't be more proud of her daughter after these great act of

The Joad's found their strength to move within the family and took a leap of faith to move to a new state, but they lost over half of their family as they went on. The journey itself would cause the average person to give up and quit. This family found the strength to move on, and still help people while others became angry and bitter. They would think of themselves before others. Steinbeck shows that through ever hardship they went through they were still willing to help people for the greater good. They show " ...the indomitable human spirit of brotherhood" (Anderson). In the last act exemplifies this idea with Rose of Sharon deciding to help a complete stranger, and allow him to use her breast milk is the ultimate sacrifice to help save a life. John Steinbeck allows the family to endure these rough times through the help of their family and the help of his fellow