The Joad Family In The Grapes Of Wrath

The home is where the heart is but, where is the heart without the home. The Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck experience a great deal of change while on their constant relocation, the reader can see the family dramatically change into much different people then they were in the beginning of the novel. With the many moves the family they had become much different than what they were when they started. The Joad’s home in Oklahoma is where the family had grown and lived for generations, their eviction sent the family on an emotional battle that would affect their family for the rest of the novel. Times had been changing in the country, and many families have been put to the curb because of loans from the banks. The Joad’s story wasn’t much different; their family’s land was being taken by the bank for a loan they couldn’t afford. This abrupt uprooting of their family’s home for many years sent them into an uphill battle for survival. They had to move their entire family off their land to California to find work. These changes make and severe impact on how the family would operate in the future. The family had become nomads trying to survive; this move would make them lose sense of how they were.

The Joad clan stayed in a Weedpatch camp that was full of families that were struggling and hungry, a reality the Joad’s would soon face. This changed the family because not only did Rose of Sharron’s husband Connie walk out on her and their child. This changed Rose of Sharron because every day she would mourn the absence of her husband she began to feel hopeless and as if her child would grow up a “freak”. Ma realized the struggle it could be to feed her family, and changed her into a new woman. This move changed the family greatly