The Role Of The Joad Family In The Grapes Of Wrath

Imagine nationwide starvation, unemployment, and an unshakable fear; these qualities represent the Great Depression which lasted from 1929 until 1941. In John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the entire Joad family or select members are used to represent these various qualities of the nation’s struggles during the Great Depression.

During the time of the Great Depression, unemployment was so widespread that constant travel was necessary in order to find any job that would pay to put food on the table. The Joad family must pick up and move on several times as jobs run out and others become available. Early in the novel, Tom Joad, fresh out of the McAlester prison for killing a man, finds a turtle on his way home to his family. After the turtle

continuously tries to escape the cloth it is encased in, Tom says, “I seen turtles all my life. They’re always goin’ someplace. They always seem to want to get there.” This turtle and the Joad family symbolize the struggles of continually moving on, facing troubles and preserving through them with the dream they will one day find what they are looking for and stop their constant travels. The Joad family faces troubles such as Tom killing the man who killed Jim Casy and must pick up all their things and yet again move on in search for new work in a new place. The Joad family always had one goal in mind: to make it to California, find good work and settle down. They keep constantly moving, like the turtle, in order to achieve this goal.
During the Great Depression fear was everywhere, no matter if it was the fear of starvation, unemployment or police.

However, for the pregnant Rose of Sharon, her fear was for her baby. After the Joad family reaches the government camp, Rose of Sharon is confronted by “a stocky woman…carrying an apple box of dirty clothes…” who we later learn is Lisbeth Sandry. She begins to fill Rose of Sharon with the fear of losing her baby by saying things such as, “If you got sin on you--you better watch out for that there baby.” and telling her of two other women in the camp who lost their babies because they were “filled with sin”. Rose of Sharon tells Ma what she said and when Lisbeth returns again, she is met with the fury of Ma and is told to get away from the Joad family and to not come back. In response to this, Lisbeth says, “You’re hell-burnin’ sinners, all of you! ... I can see your black soul a-burnin’. I can see that innocent child in that there girl’s belly a-burnin’.” This further invokes fear into Rose of Sharon who somewhat believes what Lisbeth Sandry has told her, even though Ma tries and tries to comfort her. From that day forward, Rose of Sharon is fearful for her baby’s life and is constantly making sure the rest of the family knows that she must be taken care of. Even when Winfield is very sick and Pa buys him a can of milk, Rose of Sharon says, “I ain’t had no milk… I oughta have some.” Winfield needs the can of milk in order to get better and to stop the skitters

so he doesn’t die, yet Rose of Sharon’s concern for her baby is so great, she would rather that she have the milk instead of Winfield.
Another huge struggle during the Great Depression was starvation.

Families were using all of their money to travel to find work and when jobs were not found, no money was made so there was nothing to purchase food with. This left numerous families scrounging to find anything they could eat or entering debts with local grocers in order for their families not to starve. This is evident with the Joad family when they are out of work for a brief period and they were not receiving sufficient nutrition. When Rose of Sharon finally has her baby, it is stillborn but not because of sin like Rose of Sharon believes. It is because of a lack of adequate and sufficient nutrition for Rose of Sharon and her baby. Also at the very end of the story, when Ma, Pa, Rose of Sharon, Ruthie, Winfield and Uncle John all try to find a dry place until the water recedes from their boxcar home, they encounter a man and his son, starving in a barn. The son tells the Joads, “Fust he was sick – but now he’s starvin’… Got sick in cotton. He ain’t et for six days.” In an attempt to help the weak and starving men, Rose of Sharon, having just lost her baby, breastfeeds the father to save his life. This is yet another example of how starved people were that they became so weak they could not fend for themselves anymore. The Joads understood the father and son’s struggles so they decided to try and help them with Rose of Sharon’s breastmilk because they had no money to spare to give the son so he could buy food

for himself and his father.
During the Great Depression, those struggling to get by learned new life values such as only buying what were completely necessary. This lack of self-indulgence is represented by Ma Joad, who made sure that her family was happy before her own needs. Ma also took care of some of the children in Hooverville that didn’t have anything to eat for supper. She says, “I dunno what to do. I got to feed the fambly…I can’t send them away… I’ll let ‘em have what’s lef’.” Even though there wasn’t enough stew for the other children to have and it should’ve gone to the Joad family, Ma could not turn away the hungry children when the Joad family had food left to eat. She exemplifies the new life quality of a lack of self-indulgence of those living in the Depression.
The Great Depression proved to be an enormous struggle for many families nationwide and for some, the struggle was too great. The Joad family represents the struggles of constant travel, unemployment, fear, starvation and the lack of self-indulgence. They are able to survive these many different struggles throughout John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and they preserve through them to continue living.