As the emotional and physical backbone of the Joad family, Ma demonstrates her leadership skills throughout the journey to California. ... "Ma's face blackened with anger. ... Ma, we wanna live in a town."... The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. ... The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. ...
It is very similar to the bond which the Joad family has in The Grapes of Wrath. ... In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads lived in this particular region, in Oklahoma. ... Ma Joad is an exemplary woman of strength, dedication, conviction, and love. ... Even as they break up along the way, Ma's "rise to power" and Rose of Sharon's coming of age all show what an important part of migrant life the family is. ... He has a special to John Steinbeck in that he wrote an adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath as a song titled "Tom Joad". ...
The description of the Joads' travels in The Grapes of Wrath parallels the Hebrew migration from the plagues of Egypt, across the desert, and into Canaan - in the Joads' case, California (O'Connor, p67). ... (Steinbeck, 1939, p265) How the Joads had to learn new rules to accompany their new life parallels how the Jews had to receive their new laws through Moses (O'Connor, p68). ... The character of Ma Joad was more developed than Rose of Sharon but the reader only learns about Ma through what the male characters thought and said about her. ...
