A Women’s Strength in a Broken Family
In John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath, he writes of the direct effect on the traditional American family, where the father was the head of the household. Thousands of families were forced to give up much of what they owned, in hopes of holding onto a small portion of their livelihood. As families made due with less, fathers slowly lost status within the structure of the family. A father without a job often lost self-esteem, and self-respect. Without the spiritual and financial support of the father, many families split apart during the Great Depression. As the dominance of the father figure slowly faded during the Depression, families began to depend more on the mother to support the family, morally and spiritually. Some mothers' ability to economize was the difference between keeping food on the table, and allowing the family to starve. Women ran the households in some cases; they kept the family together and organized. One of the main characters, Ma Joad delineates perfectly the expansion of the roles of women in the American family. In this essay I will track the changing role of women, and the importance Ma Joad, Rose of Sharon, and Mrs. Wilson play in the changing lives of the Joad fam

When the family ties finally begin to weaken between the many family members in the Joad family. It is Ma that always brings them back together. The family is surprised by this change but they are able to accept the different ways, considering the unfamiliar situation they were thrust into.

“And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men - to feel whether this time the men would break. The women studied the men's faces secretly, for the corn could go, so long as something else remained...After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant. Then the women knew that they were safe and that there was no break.” [Page 6]

The various members learn to accept the change, but slowly some of them find their own way out of the family. By the time the family reaches their destination three more people have left the family. The Wilson’s were left behind, and Noah, the oldest son, leaves. Ma knows she must try her best to keep the rest of the family together. She constantly worries about the amount of food the can buy. The many places they stop to find work it is always Ma they turn to, she is always has the last word in where they travel to find work. Ma pays special attention to which ever member needs it most, because she know with out the values that are familiar to the family, the family will fall apart. They only thing the family can count on are their own love for each other and the love for their neighbors. Rose of Sharon learned this lesson the hard way, through all the stress she went through it would have been a miracle if the baby were born healthy. When the she learns she had a stillborn baby her life changes in a drastic way. Her husband left her; she has nothing to hold onto except the family and her love of her neighbors. At the end of the book a man lays in a barn on the verge of death, but Rose of Sharon saves him by giving him the only thing she could. The breast milk that she had been carrying for the baby she lost. She grew from a self-centered child to a well aware woman, who knows to care about the people around her, much like her mother.

“The eyes of the whole family shifted back to Ma. She was the power. Sh