Ma Joad

Ma Joad is the heart of this caravanning family. She stays at Pa's side for the duration of the book, but she also develops into the leader of this family when Pa begins to be unable to make decisions. Ma is also hesitant of going to California because she is not sure if there will be work there or not and it turns out that her intuition is partially right(Steinbeck, Chapter 10). She believes in "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." and this serves her very well. Ma knows that California is a sketchy situation but she goes anyway because this is before she began to influence decisions made by the family. Ma sees right through the California dream. Maybe Ma Joad has such a strong intuition because she's experienced so much in her life. She dreams of having a little white house surrounded by orange trees and of reaching out and grabbing as many oranges as her hands can carry, but she is also afraid of nice things because she does not think that they can happen so easily. Ma Joad is a strong-hearted woman and she is very tough. She is like the watcher of her flock and she will not let anything happen to them. Although she is an older woman, she has the strength and will of a bull. When she wants something to happen that is what is going to happen. Ma Joad does not have an easy life. However, she remains cool, calm, and collected, even when she's lost her house, her land, and has to burn her earthly possessions. She has to be solid as a rock, so that her family doesn't fall apart. Without her, the Joads would not be the Joads.

Even though she loses some of her family on the road and she is sad about them, she is able to keep control and do what is best for her family and that is what made her Ma in this book.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.