Discussion notes: chapters 10-11

Transitions and transformations

• When the Joads change from farm people to road people, they have to cast off not only many of their belongings but their habits and customs as well:– Casy salts the pork even though it’s “women’s work,” according to Ma.

“It’s all work,” Casy replies.

– The leadership of the Joads must pass to Ma before the family can assume its new identity.

– Grandpa refuses to go: To be torn away from his land is too shattering for him.

Discussion notes: chapters 10-11

The Joad family

• Each person is a separate individual with distinct qualities. Yet, the family often acts as if it were one person. It makes decisions as a group, travels as a single unit, and reacts uniformly to events.

Discussion notes: chapters 10-11

Experience changes the family’s personality:

– Before the Joads leave home, Grandpa and Granma rule the roost, at least in name. When the family breaks ties to the land and joins the migrant exodus, the old generation gives way to the new.

– Pa’s authority is fleeting: Ma gradually takes over, and her powerful personality and steady hand are what holds the family together at this point.

– When Tom plans to remain with another family’s disabled car until it is fixed, Ma vows to smash him with a jack handle if he insists the family go on without him. She is then seen as the undisputed leader of the Joads.

Discussion notes: chapters 10-11

• Yet, Ma is already (subconsciously) beginning to subscribe to a new notion of family. “I” is becoming “We.” When isolated families fuse with one another, a larger family, a Human Family, develops.

• This is also seen when Muley knows he must share his rabbit with Tom and Casy. They are hungry: He has food. He must share.