Broken Gender

In this novel as we talked about in class, we concluded that Ma Joad becomes the family’s strength as Pa begins to decrease as an effective leader. What happened here? At the beginning of the book we are told that the women look to the men for support by way of seeing if the men “break” when something goes wrong. If the men have not broken, than everything is alright, supposedly. But what do they men when they say “break”? I believe that breaking is the point where someone says "well...this is too hard for me...I give up," or just not thinking about anyone else but yourself, Which is kind of what Pa does, along with most of the other men in Grapes. For example, Noah just kind of runs off and decides that he is better off on his own in a forest. Wow, can you say family abandonment??

It is apparent to me by the end of the book that Pa Joad has definitely been broken when the hardships the family has gone through prove to be too much for him, but when this happens, Ma steps up and tells him (when he becomes even less effective after he cannot find work) that he has lost sight of his responsibility to the family. After he was unable to keep the family’s shelter from flooding it is as though now Pa has lost all hope in himself, and follows Ma like a defenseless child.

When I began to think of how Ma, a female, is taking over as the family’s back bone, I began to think of other ways in which the gender roles may have changed since they moved to California. It seemed important to me because, like I said before, the beginning of the book says that the women look to the men for support, but it is pretty clear that the women aren’t looking anywhere but inside themselves for whatever kind of support they need, and the men are abandoning the thought of any output of support.

Even Rose of Sharon steps up to the plate at the very end of the book when SHE helps a starving MAN. She has just given birth to a stillborn baby and somehow she finds the strength and will inside herself to help this man.

The only male figure that I see who blossoms in this situation and does not give up or “break” by the end of the book is of course, Tom. But when we look at Tom, we notice that he is very feminine in the novel; He is much more like his mother than his father or uncle. At one point he says that he wishes he could take on the persona his father has put on. This idea of Tom not being quite masculine enough might hint to the idea that women are the ones who’s character’s are built through hardships, whereas men are more likely to diminish because they (men) have always been looked up to for hope and leadership-when they cannot accomplish things, they give up on themselves-whereas the females (or the female persona/role) who have been in the background most of the time can step up and, by thinking of the family and not themselves, can take on the leadership and provider role.