Essay On Ma Joad 'In The Grapes Of Wrath'

I’ll Have What She’s Having

We live in a time where gender equality is almost a reality. Women can do many of the same jobs men can do and in single families or in times of need take a patriarchal role in their family or the workplace. This is exactly what happened in The Grapes of Wrath, 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

Steinbeck’s characterization of Ma Joad is a positive characterization of a woman. She embodies the prowess of the sought-after woman, and she is a symbol for positive motherhood. She is strong, and she is never fragile. She becomes a leader, and personifies the role of every mother and wife forced to defend her young. Ma is described in the early chapters of the book as “thick, with child bearing and work”(99), which makes her appearance sound like a very strong woman. Ma is supposed to be seen as the matriarchal archetype, a strong-willed, beautiful woman who can take care of her family. While men were distracted by how bad things got, “the women knew how the past would cry to them in the coming days”. (111) Steinbeck implants thoughts of both patriarchal dismissal and feminine uprising throughout the novel when Ma gradually makes more of the decisions and personally sacrifices more for her family, and both men and women in the family turn to her for traditionally male

She is converted into an almost biblical figure as the story parallels leading a group of oppressed peoples on an exodus. One can look at the ever-growing rise of feminine presence by looking chronologically at the text. The book transforms itself by the end focusing solely on Ma and the other women’s struggles. In the end when Tom leaves, the book discards the only other main character to focus on Ma. A man made the first decision of the book and a woman ends up making the final decision by telling Rose of Sharon to offer a dying man breast