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Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding. She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken.
This quotation from Chapter 8 is the book’s first description of Ma Joad, and it establishes her as the family’s strength. Steinbeck describes her as a “citadel,” a fortress. In the family hierarchy, Pa may be the leader, but Ma’s presence creates a solid base. Her role as the family’s citadel is why it’s so difficult for her to see the family splinter in later chapters. If her people are separate, she cannot protect and give them strength.
The eyes of the whole family shifted back to Ma. She was the power. She had taken control. “The money we’d make wouldn’t do no good,’’ she said. “All we got is the family unbroke.”
Ma says these words in Chapter 16 when Tom suggests that he and Casy stay behind to fix the car and catch up with the family later. As the family’s strength, Ma reminds them that keeping the family together is more important than the potential to make more money. This moment is the first time she defies Pa’s decision. It’s the first sign that Pa may not be strong enough to weather the challenges to come, whereas she has the ability to hold everyone together.
I tol’ Granma we couldn’ he’p her. The fambly had ta get acrost. I tol’ her, tol’ her when she was a-dyin’. We couldn’ stop in the desert. There was the young ones—an’ Rosasharn’s baby. I tol’ her.
This quotation comes from Chapter 18 when Ma reveals that she hid Granma’s death from the agricultural inspectors so that the family could get across the desert as soon as possible. This moment demonstrates both Ma’s selflessness and strength. She weathers an entire drive next to her dead mother-in-law whom she loved without notifying anyone to ensure the family is able to cross the desert in one go. Although the experience leaves her shaken, she holds herself together for the sake of the more vulnerable family members.
But you ain’t a-doin’ your job, either a-thinkin’ or a-workin’. If you was, why, you could use your stick, an’ women folks’d sniffle their nose an’ creep-mouse aroun’. But you jus’ get you a stick now an’ you ain’t lickin’ no woman; you’re a-fightin’, ’cause I got a stick all laid out too.
Ma makes this speech to Pa in Chapter 26 in response to his frustration with her challenging his authority. Ma’s rebellion is less a challenge of traditional gender roles and more an observation that Pa isn’t doing what he needs to do to keep the family safe. He has no money for food nor a solid plan to get money. As the family stronghold, Ma is willing to step into a role of power to care for the family. She will be strong because the family needs her to be.
Use’ ta be the fambly was fust. It ain’t so now. It’s anybody. Worse off we get, the more we got to do.
Ma says these words in Chapter 30 when she thanks Mrs. Wainwright for helping with Rose of Sharon’s baby. As the novel draws to a close, it becomes clear that Ma has not only fully inhabited her own strength, but she also knows the necessity of sharing her strength beyond the boundaries of family. Following in the footsteps of Jim Casy and Tom, she has begun to see every needy person as her responsibility, part of the common family of humanity.
