Ma Joad example essay topic

In every family configuration, whether the family consists of a husband and a wife or a family with 9 children, there is a member in that structure that the family could not survive without. The human body depends on the backbone to hold it up, as does any functional family. The backbone in the family, albeit a mom, dad, or child, keeps the family together through trials and tribulations. They often put their family's needs before their own. John Steinbeck's Ma Joad, a chubby house wife whose eyes show the world more experiences than a normal "housewife" would undertake, is that character (Steinbeck 95). Ma's defining characteristics along with her "power" in the family and her undying attempts to hold the family together throughout their journey west define the family and acknowledge her important yet dedicated role in getting the family out west.

Throughout history when a person is analyzed, their character is most often brought up because your character is what defines you as in individual. Ma Joad's character leaves no doubt in a person's mind that she is a strong character. She is used to "hardship and deprivation" (web). Her stubbornness often does the family good in the long run.

When told to do something or go somewhere she asserts her opinion whether it is wanted or not: "I ain't a-gonna go" (217). Kindness is also a key point in defining someone's character. Though she seems stubborn and mean at times, Ma Joad is kind at heart: "I can't send 'em away... you little fellas go an' get you each a flat stick an' I'll put what's lef' for you" (331) Had she no kindness, the hungry little children would have been told to vacate their site because they were bothering them. Appearance, in regards to how other people see her, is important to Ma. Even if the family has been traveling for a long time and she is dirty like the rest of them are, she always wants to make herself, as well as her family, presentable to other people: "Now look in that box an' get you some clean over halls an' a shirt... git in Ruthie an' Winfiel's ears... scrounge aroun' in their ears good, and' their necks. Get 'em red an's hinin' " (389) and "We ain't clean... they [the Ladies' Committee of Sanitary Unit Number Four] shouldn't be comin' till we get cleaned up a little" (391).

Ruthie, 12, and Winfield, 10, are Ma Joad's youngest kids. Ruthie is coming of age and Winfield still acts like a young child, full of adventure. Not everyone thinks your looks should be all that important but they truly are. If you are sloppily dressed, people will think you are sloppy in your work. Even though Ma Joad doesn't have a lot of money, whenever she is around important people, she tries to look nice with what she owns. Ma Joad's overall niceness towards other people, until they get her riled up: "Git!

Don' you never come back. I seen your kind before. You'd take the little pleasure wouldn' you?" (412), rubs off onto her children: "Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. 'You got to,' she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close.

'There!' she said. 'There' " (581). Rose of Sharon, aka Rosasharn, is. "... ' bout three-four-five months now. Swellin' up right now" (107) As with most businesses, the point to them all is to make a profit. If your 'crop' is failing, you 1) stop selling it, or 2) you find a cheaper way to make money off of it. This happens to be the case with a lot of families in Oklahoma and other parts as well.

The owners, or representatives of the owners', would come around to the tenant farmers and. ".. talk nice as pie. 'You got to get off. It ain't my fault' " (61) If the owners', as most did, refused to get off their land, .".. the guy drivin' that cat'... jus' com on, an' bumped the hell outa the house, an' give her a shake like a dog shakes a rat" (59). Basically, if they didn't move off the land, the drivers would bulldoze right over it. Didn't matter if there were people still in the houses or not. The cat drivers' "had to keep the line straight" (49).

As can be imagined, many families were split up by some members of the family wanting to stay on the land they grew up on: .".. I'd prob " ly be in California right now a-eatin' grapes an' a-pickin' an orange when I wanted. But them... says I got to get off... an'... a man can't when he's tol' to!" (61). Like most families, the Joad's packed up what they could take with them and what they couldn't, they sold, and headed west. Like it was said, some families were split up; so Ma tried her very hardest to keep her family together. Before they even head out, there is a problem already: Grampa, .".. a lean, ragged, quick old man" (100) says to the group, "Ain't nothin' the matter with me, I jus' ain't a-goin' " (143).

To solve this minor set back, Ma gets "half a bottle soothin's i rup... and makes up a cup of black coffee, good an's trong" (144) This causes Grampa to go to sleep, where they drag his sleeping body up into the truck and head off. When the family, along with the Wilson's who are a family the Joad's ran into on the side of some road in their travels, get about 75 miles before Albuquerque the Wilson's truck breaks down and they have to stop. Tom, Ma's son who was just paroled for killing a man, suggests, "You take out some of that stuff in the truck, an' then all you folks but me an' the preacher get in an' move on" (216) As can be imagined, Ma Joad does not like this idea at all and in fact. ".. brought out a jack handle and balanced it in her hand easily. 'I ain't a-gonna go' " (217). What ends up happening is that Al, a "Tom-cattin'... smart-aleck sixteen-year-older...

". (106) drives all of them but Tom and the preacher to a spot just up the road to rest (218-219). So, to the delight of Ma, the family is not split up. However, along the way Grampa and Granma dies (176-177 & 293); Noah, the first born, whose body due to the fact that Pa pulled him out when he was born (101) is odd looking, left the family (269); and Case, the preacher who Tom ran into while going to his parent's place, gets arrested for something he didn't do (343). So, despite her best efforts, the family is not exactly kept together.

In most households, the man is the person who makes all the decisions. For the most part, this is true in the Joad family as well, although Ma Joad is looked to for advice in situations. Ma considered and accepted her position, .".. the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken" (94). It was to her that the family looked towards to see if things were ok: ... since old Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless she acknowledged hurt and fear, she had practiced denying them in herself. And since, when a joyful thing happened, they looked to see whether joy was on her, it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials (95). It was odd because she was a woman and yet, "They waited for her to come back across the darkening yard, for Ma was powerful in the group" (133).

In intrusting her with helping out with the decisions of the family, her fights to hold the family weren't as easily dismissed. When talking about a person and considering their significance, there are many things that they could be judged on, but the most important things that come to mind are their integrity, honesty, how they treat people, how they contribute to their family or the community they belong to, and if they suddenly died would they be truly missed. A family is like a human body; without the necessary equipment, the body is useless and cannot function. The daily as well as the long term struggles are inevitable; every family has them. But what makes a family truly unique is if there is a strong head of the family, Ma Joad, to keep that 'body' functioning properly at all times. Like Ma Joad, to be truly significant, you have to keep that 'body' working..