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Family tradition inspired the connection to the land - "Grampa killed Indians, Pa killed snakes for the land. Maybe we can kill banks - they're worse than Indians and snakes. Maybe we got to fight to keep our land, like Pa and Grampa did."
The Importance of the family unit on the road.
Solace - "What we got lef’ in the world? Nothin’ but us. Nothing but folks. We come out an Grandpa, he reached for the shovel-shelf right off. An’ you wanna bust up the folks"
Order - "Each member of the family grew into his proper place, grew into his duties; so that each member, old and young, had his place in the car; so that in the weary, hot evenings, when the cars pulled into the camping places, each member had his duty and went to it without instruction: children to gather wood, to carry water; men to pitch tents and bring down the beds; women to cook the supper and to watch while the family fed. And this was done without command."
Hope/ motivation - "How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him--he has known a fear beyond every other."
" But you can't start. Only a baby can start. This land, this red land, is us... We can't start again."
Through his depiction of the Dust Bowl, Steinbeck demonstrates how even family bonds dissolve under pressure if lacking unity and adequate leadership.
People who left because they lacked the sense of community shared by the rest of the family:
In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the hardships of the Dust Bowl subvert the institution of family and establishes a community which extends its strength extends from the individuals. In the beginning of their journey, the Joads relied on one another on their way to achieve the California Dream. However, as they ventured westward, a common interest and goal brought them closer to others on the same path, and weeded out those who lacked that sense of community.
Community:
"Three dollars a day. I got damn sick of creeping for my dinner- and not getting it. I got a wife and kids. We got to eat. Three dollars a day, and it comes everyday."
Ma was persistent in maintaining the family unit even though she had her own doubts.
"'I'm scared of stuff so nice. I ain't got faith. I'm scared somepin ain't so nice about it'"
"She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. And since Tom and the children could not know hurt or fear unless she acknowledged hurt and fear, she has practiced denying them in herself.....She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall.”
Tom is initially distant from his family; however, he subtly grows to become a leader of the family.
Though an honorary part of the Joad family, Jim Casy is an important moral compass and spiritual leader.
A leader to the migrant community - "Here's me, been a-goin' into the wilderness like Jesus to try find out out somepin.. But it's in the jail house I really got her." "Talks all the time.. Folks kinda likes to hear 'im, though."