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In some families the father is the foundation, in others, the mother is the foundation. During the 1930s most families depended off of the father. The father would be the one in charge of what the family does even though the mother of the family would do the cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children and the family in general. Though, what would happen if the man step down from the head of the family and let the mother take charge? In desperate times women are able to deal with hardships that are thought men could only deal with shown through Ma Joad taking care of Rose of Sharon, keeping the family together, protecting Tom, and protecting the family in John Steinbeck's novel Grapes of Wrath. A mother daughter bond can be one of the strongest bonds there is. Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon's mother daughter bond is very strong. Soon after Connie, Rose of Sharon's ex-husband, leaves the family we see Ma console Rose of Sharon about what has happened with Connie can’t affect the baby. Ma says, “You’re gonna have a baby Rosasharn, and that’s somepin to you lonely hurt an’ this here tent is alone in the …show more content…
Ma helps Rose of Sharon deal with the hardships of pregnancy and loss of a child, she also keeps the family together no matter what it takes knowing that if they split apart, it would be harder on the family. She takes care of Tom and watches over him and in geeneral takes care of the family during the hardships of trying to find work in California during The Dust Bowl. Steinbeck, uses Ma as a way to project that men are not always the one in charge. Did Steinbeck write Ma Joad as a feminist before her time? Ma Joad is the face of the Joad family and the reason why they made all the way to
Intercalary Chapters The use of Intercalary chapters is a complex technique. Writers use this structure to break up the plot with separate excerpts inserted into the novel. Intercalary chapters help to give the reader background knowledge or important information. This can help further develop the novels impact on readers. John Steinbeck displayed this strategy throughout The Grapes of Wrath, interrupting the Joad family’s journey with chapters describing other aspects of the novel’s setting.
When times get tough, many people turn away from everyone and everything. It must be part of human nature to adopt an independent attitude when faced with troubles. It is understandable because most people do not want to trouble their loved ones when they are going through problems, so it is easier to turn away than stick together. Maybe their family is going through a rough patch and they reason they would be better off on their own. This path of independence and solitude may not always be the best option for them or their family, though. Often times it is more beneficial for everyone to work through the problem together. It is not always the easiest or most desirable option, but most times it is the most efficient and it will get results in the long run. In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck makes this point very clear through several characters. Many characters throughout
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
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 that she is now an exception to the normal rules and exploits her position to its fullest potential.
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 the family traveled to California, she slowly began to take charge. This was first seen when Tom, Ma’s son, suggested that the family continue driving while he and Casy, the preacher, stayed behind to fix the Wilson’s (a family the Joads met on their way to California) automobile. Ma Joad was furious with this idea. She brought out a jack handle and said, “ ‘You done this ‘thout thinkin’ much. What we got lef ‘in the world’? Nothin’ but us. Nothin’ but the folks…An’ now, right off, you wanna bust up the folks’ “ (Steinbeck 218). Ma J...
Tom Joad is an ex-convict that was only into his own self-interest and lived by a mantra of live your life day by day and not concerned with the future, to becoming a man who thinks about the future and someone with morals and an obligation to help others. Ma Joad is a typical woman of the early 1900’s whose main role was a mother only with a role of caring and nurturing. Later in the novel, she becomes an important figure for the family and is responsible for making decisions in keeping the family together and emphasizes the importance of unity. Another important transition in the book is the family starting off as a single close knit unit to depending on other families to survive. This common interest and struggle bonded the community of individual families to a single one. Steinbeck wrote this novel very well, by having great character dynamics and development that displays the characters strengths and also their
Steinbeck's relationship to the transcendentalists [Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman] was pointed out soon after The Grapes of Wrath appeared by Frederick I. Carpenter, and as the thirties fade into history, Jim Casy with his idea of the holiness of all men and the unreality of sin seems less a product of his own narrowly doctrinaire age than a latter-day wanderer from the green village of Concord to the dry plains of the West.
The struggle of sibling rivalry over ability and temperament has taken East of Eden in a whole new perspective. Steinbeck’s portrait on sibling rivalry shows the good vs. evil of each character in the story. The nature of good vs. evil as natural selection is also seen in siblings, as a compete for something physical, mental, or something emotional. The sibling rivalry from the biblical characters embraced Steinbeck’s characters throughout every concept in the novel, the good vs. evil confines the characters personality in every idea of Steinbeck’s novel. From the biblical story of Cain and Abel to Adam and Charles to Cal and Aaron the story continues through out every generation.
On the Joad’s journey to the land of milk and honey, they encounter people that are cruel and brutish. Yet they still find it in themselves to help others as well as some people helping the Joad’s out. At their first official camp, the Joad’s unpack and cook something to eat, stew to be exact. As the stew is cooking, the smell of food attracts a slew of children. They try to help Ma out as she is cooking; doing everything they can to be fed. Ma knows she doesn’t have enough to feed the children seeing that she can barely feed her own family, yet she still decides to do the right thing, “I’m a-gonna set this here kettle out, an’ you’ll all get a little tas’, but it ain’t gonna do you no good,”” but Ma could see the children starve, “I can’t he’p it. Can’t keep it from you.”” (Steinbeck 258) Ma is incapable of leaving children to starve.
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 with these features to show her strength as a mother who has control and survives through hard situations (95). Her 'bare feet' being close to the earth shows how she takes on a 'Mother Nature' archetype to her character. She is one with the earth just as Mother Nature is. Mother Nature is one that gives birth, produces, sustains life and nurtures her family. All of these archetypes are expressed in ma's character.
Johnson, Miriam M. Strong Mothers, Weak Wives: The Search for Gender Equality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Print.
In typical families of the early to mid 1900s, and even now in many cases, the man held the position of the leader, and the expected role of women was to cook, clean, and follow the orders of their husbands. This can be seen in the very first chapter of The Grapes of Wrath when Steinbeck writes, “And the women came out of the housed to stand beside their men-to feel whether this time the men would break…women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole”. (Steinbeck, 2006) It is clear from this that the women look to their husbands to decide how they must respond to any situation. Despite this typical portrayal of a submissive wife, Ma Joad in Grapes steps up as the leader and backbone of her family. Steinbeck makes this clear when he says, “She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. And since Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless she acknowledged hurt and fear, she has practiced denying them in herself”. (Steinbeck, 2006) Clearly, the members of the Joad family look to Ma for leadership, not Pa. Unlike Ma, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays Daisy...
Each member of the family was expected to fulfill certain roles, and to execute their obligations appropriately. When men came back from World War Two, they were forced to jump back into a normal lifestyle: working and raising a family. The father was the sole provider of the family, as he controlled the finances by working a steady job. After each day of work, the father would come home and find his role change from an intelligent businessman to a loving and caring husband. While the father was at work for the day, the mother was at home cooking, cleaning, and tending to the children. A small number of women worked part-time jobs with flexible hours, while still meeting the demands of daily housework, but rarely took the burden of working a full-time job. The mother’s main duty was to care for the children and provide for them. The children were raised to act in a respectful manner, with minimal behavioral issues. When asked by an adult to complete a certain chore, objecting was not an option; as punishment was common. According to John Rosemond from the Hartford Courant, “Your mom and dad paid more attention to one another than they paid to you.” He also commented, “They bought you very little, so you appreciated everything you had. And you took care of it” (Author John Rosemond, “Raising Kids In 1950s Households Vs. Today’s”). Children looked up
Comparing its structure and function as it was in 1960 with what it had become in 1990 can highlight the dramatic changes in the American family. Until 1960 most Americans shared a common set of beliefs about family life; family should consist of a husband and wife living together with their children. The father should be the head of the family, earn the family's income, and give his name to his wife and children. The mother's main tasks were to support and enable her husband's goals, guide her children's development, look after the home, and set a moral tone for the family. Marriage was an enduring obligation for better or worse and this was due much to a conscious effort to maintain strong ties with children. The husband and wife jointly coped with stresses. As parents, they had an overriding responsibility for the well being of their children during the early years-until their children entered school, they were almost solely responsible. Even later, it was the parents who had the primary duty of guiding their children's education and discipline. Of course, even in 1960, families recognized the difficulty of converting these ideals into reality. Still, they devoted immense effort to approximating them in practice. As it turned out, the mother, who worked only minimally--was the parent most frequently successful in spending the most time with her children. Consequently, youngsters were almost always around a parental figure -- they were well-disciplined and often very close with the maternal parent who cooked for them, played with them, and saw them off to and home from school each day.
Then there was the woman’s movement and women felt they deserved equal rights and should be considered man’s equal and not inferior. The man going out to work, and the wife staying home to care for the home and the children would soon become less the norm. This movement would go on to shape the changes within the nuclear family. Women deci...