re no exception.
A perhaps typical æSteinbeck womanÆ is Ma Joad, the mother of the family traveling west in The Grapes of Wrath. Ma JoadÆs strength is apparent in her muscular build, and in her actions and attitudes. Her strength is for her family, and she uses it to encourage them. For example, on the road, Ma Joad says to her starving children: ôIÆm gonna set this kettle out, anÆ youÆll all get a little tasÆ, but it ainÆt gonna do you no good. I canÆt heÆp it. CanÆt keep it from you.ö (Grapes ). Her strengths are marshaled to help her family immigrate west. In contrast, we have Rose, abandoned by her husband Connie. Her baby is stillborn, ôdropped dead,ö typical of the women too weak to endure the hardships of a life of deprivation. Ma Joan and Rose offer a stark contrast to each other, and help us to understand the kinds of women who populate SteinbeckÆs fiction. On the one hand, there are the ôsalt of the earthö women, the strong women who care about their men and who help them. On the other, there are women who are too weak, psychologically or physically, to endure. Their kind is typically disdained by both the stronger women characters, and by the men.
In ôThe Leader of the People,ö Ruth Tiflin, JodyÆs mother, is another æSteinbeck woman.Æ Like Ma Joad, she uses her physical strength and her psychological insights to endure hardships and to fight for what she thinks is right for her family members. Ruth stands up to her husband, Carl, when he complains about how her fatherÆs stories of the conquests of the past bore him. She also seems to understand the importance of tradition, and of the needs of those who have given their lives to æwestering.Æ ôÆLook,Æ she tells her husband. æItÆs as if he was born to do that, and after he finished it, there wasnÆt anything more for him to do but think about it and talk about it. If thereÆd been any farther west to go, heÆd have goneÆ...