| | Is the role of the matriarch a happy one? It seems that in any family, in a time of crises, the children look to the mother for stability, consistency, and reliability. It's a long established gender myth in American consciousness that the woman's function is primarily motherhood and mothering, whereas men tend toward independence and autonomy. In this framework, a woman like Ma Joad, has the opportunity to assert herself as a leader but still maintain her role as self-less nurturer of the group. She can be a woman for all seasons, the non-intrusive, indestructable "citadel" on whom everyone else depends.
In "The Grapes of Wrath," without the unshakable strength and wisdom of the mother, who must at time assert her will to fill the vacuum of her husbands incapability, nothing of the family, as they define it, would survive. She doesn't seem to acheive an identity of her own or reach the awareness reached by Tom, but she does fill the space of the invincible woman/wife/mother.
The roles of many women in Steinbeck's other stories and novels are those of whores, hustlers, tramps, madams. Some critics say they "seem compelled to choose between homemaking and whoredom." Steinbeck's "positive" women seem to be impressively "enduring" but never in their own self-interest. Their value is in their nurturing capabilities for the benefit of the group.
They may also carry knowledge of their husbands and of men generally.
In "The Grapes of Wrath," the men lost their abilty to deal with things in the traditional way. They couldn't fight. Agressiveness wouldn't work. They were helpless, impotent.
The women, in this situation, were careful around their men. They knew not to bother them and make things worse. When the men became determined, the children and women felt more safe. "no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole."
For women, according to some critics, relationships are based on cooperation rather than power. Steinbeck, however, believed that matriarchy didn't have to be regressive. It suited the purpose of his novel.
The three main characters in "The Grapes of Wrath" were Jim Casy, Tom Joad, and Ma Joad. And, at times, she took center stage.
The first thing Tom thought when he came home and saw his home in a condition he knew his mother would never allow was that she was dead. He associated the physical deteriation of his home with a missing mother.
The grandmother sent Tom a childish sort of Christmas card while he was in prison, but Ma Joad's card was, apparently more appropriate. Perhaps the older lady couldn't see well and didn't know what was in the card. Tom would not hold it against her. However, Ma Joad is the woman of wisdom.
There were times when she was willing to share food to feed hungry children in California when there was not sufficient food to feed her own family.
In the decision to bring Casy along on the California trip was the first time Ma Joad stood up against her husband. This seemed to give her a little authority, but she accepted it unpretentiously, without arrogance. Later, when the car breaks down, she refuses to agree to split up the family in order to hasten the arrival of some of the family in California. She also chatises the group when they get discouraged about not finding work. She tells them to keep at it.
Each time she asserts herself, however, she immediately goes back to her domestic role. She doesn't gloat over her husband. In fact, she comments that getting him mad lioke this is good for him. It keeps him from being too depressed.
When Casy wanted to help her with salting down something, she said that it was womans work. Casy, nevertheless, helped her and understood the oppressiveness of women, the only character in the book who seemed to understand that.
One of the greatest examples of Ma Joad's selflessness was when she hid the fact that the grandmother died until they got across the desert. They had to get across.
Then, the last thing she did in the novel was to have her daughter, who just lost a baby, breast feed a starving old man.
She seems to fulfill a high calling in the realm of wife and motherdom. Is this something with which women can be happy?
bis bald,
Nick
|
|
