Pa Joad represents the strength and leadership of the Joad family at the beginning of the novel. However, as the family struggles to find work and resources in California, Pa feels less necessary and withdraws from the family. Steinbeck uses Pa to show the dangers of focusing only on self-preservation. Ma Joad takes on the role of holding the family together as the men can no longer provide. Her motivation is preserving the integrity of the family unit, which she sees as one whole like a turtle. However, as family members leave and the hardships increase, the family starts to unravel. Ma's goal becomes re-knitting the family for her own self-preservation. Stein

1. By: Peter Derks Mr. Kabachia Humanities 30-1 The Grapes of Wrath is John Steinbeck’s way of representing how self-preservation can lead to hardship, frustration and agony when dealing with competing internal and external demands. Steinbeck shows the consequences that arise when preserving one’s self over others through his characters Pa Joad, Ma Joad and Jim Casy. Pa Joad represents the fortitude and resourcefulness of the Joad family, at the start of the novel, and shows his strength when “[he is] the head of the family…” However, as the plot unfolds and the hope, once plentiful, had become false promise, the family must struggle for their collective self-preservation. With Ma being able to provide food and Al administrating the family’s transportation, Pa became less necessary for the Joads to survive. As the Joads depart from their homeland and head towards the promise land, the needs of the family become constricted along with Pa’s leadership. When they reach California Pa “[becomes] silent and withdrawn for a long time,” which gave him to time to think. Steinbeck assures the reader the dangers of becoming self-enthralled within your thoughts. Pa detaches himself mentally from the family, because he was always the provider of the family and can now no longer find work, meaning he can no longer provide food, and is no longer head of the family. The motivation for him dwelling into dangerous thoughts is because he needs to preserve himself and, potentially, putting himself before the family. This occurs frequently because each time the family struggles, he distances himself so that he does not need to suffer with them. The external demands shift at the end of the novel from attempting to find necessities to keeping what the Joads have left. And as the families demands shift, as does Pa and he “[laughs] triumphantly” because when the family has nothing, his motivation to step forward and take command is that of any father’s, watching their family drowned with struggle, duty. Ma Joad, “the citadel of the family”, has the commitment to maintain the integrity of the family. Her individualism stems from how closely knit the family is. The further the plot extends, the further the distance between family members, and the further Ma feels she had failed. The sole purpose of Ma's induction into the novel is to be the string that weaves the family together. When the men in the family can no longer find work, there is a shift in the ordering of the family and Ma becomes the head of the family. Pa Joad struggles to contemplate his loss of power, and Ma beckons him and the rest of the family through the hopelessness and anger. The motivation for her to keep the family together, is because to her, the family is one individual much like the turtle. When the turtle losses a leg, it will never be able to walk straight and function properly, Noah leaving was the first sign of the crumbling hope guiding the family. The family unweaves as the novel progresses and is no longer as shielded from the outside impact created by the poverty and starvation. The blanket that was once the family became a pile of strings each with their own course and Ma Joad's motivation is re-knit her self-preservation.