The Joad Family In The Grapes Of Wrath

In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family faces extreme challenges like having to move to California, the onslaught of constant dust, and death. The Joads must stick together and remain a family if they want to survive during these tough times. Family is the major theme in the book, with multiple symbols backing it up such as the turtle that Tom grabs at the beginning of the book, or farming.
In chapter three Tom Joad finds a turtle why walking down the road. He picks it up in hopes of giving it to the kids. However when he finally gets home and discovers that everyone had be run off the land, he lets the turtle go. The turtle starts walking in the same direction that Tom found it walking in. The turtle was determined to get to where

it was going at all costs, just like the Joads. The Joads either give up or sell everything they have in order to get to California, and some gave their lives. The family has to stay together throughout the trip because all they have anymore is each other. “She (Ma) walked for the family and held her head straight for the family.”
Farming is what the Joads have been doing on their land for centuries, farmers are what they are. The Joads have been on the land for lands, so when they are forced off of it, just because it’s more profitable to use a tractor, it’d be natural for them to throw a fit. They felt that they had earned the land because they were the ones who looked after it, year after year, and after working side by side each other for so long, they grew close. Like farming, however, the Joads had to change. Farming was being modernized by machines, and the stubborn farmers had to change with it. The Joads were forced by terrible weather and the advancement of technology to leave their birthplace and land that they earned.
The Bank is a terrible monster that the Joads have to face up against.

The bank was hungry, not for meat or vegetables, but for money and profit. The farmers attempt to fight the bank, but cannot because it is not a person, but rather an organization. The farmers are forced to leave because of the bank, and since there are no one or two persons that run it, there is nothing they can do about it. "Fellow was telling me the bank gets orders from the East. The orders were, 'Make the land show profit or we'll close you up’.” The monster ate the land and then ate the families that lived on the land. There is only one good thing that comes out of the bank monster, and that’s unity through hate. The Joads and their neighbors all grew closer through their shared hate of a common enemy. The Joads need this unity in order to survive and adapt to their ordeal.
Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy is one of the more positive symbols in the book. The baby she carries represents the hope and unity of the entire Joad family. The entire family comes to help Rose of Sharon whenever she needs it, it really shows how much the family loves each other. The Joads really come together because of the promise of a new Joad. The baby also represents a start of a new beginning, of a new life in California. The baby ends up being stillborn that isn’t revealed till the end of the

book.
Family is what stops the Joads from dying off. Without each other they couldn’t have endured the challenges that they faced, and didn’t, like Grandpa and Grandma Joad. The Joads are determined, forever hopeful, and ever changing. Family is one thing that the Joads have that cannot be taken away which is why the hold it so dearly and cherish it. “The families moved westward, and the technique of building the worlds improved so that the people could be safe in their worlds; and the form was so fixed that a family acting in the rules knew it was safe in the rules.“
The Joads are tough and determined like the turtle, hopeful at the promise of a new baby Joad, but forever changing like the farming industry. Through sticking together and truly caring for each other, the Joads adapt and conquer every situation that they face. All throughout the book, families come together to help each other. “The evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream.” During the struggle of survival, families come together to form a community that thrives.