Mother and Child

     The relationship between the mother and her children is more connected as the children look to their mother more so in tuff conditions. The children rely on the mother for support and comfort. In the novel Tom would also look to Ma for help or answers. When Tom expressed his frustration, Ma tells him that she, “got to lean you…You wont give up,” (353). When and if the father of the household isolates himself form the family sometime the job falls on the children. In the Joad family it was Ma who expressed that Tom was the only one working while, “the rest of you scrabblin’ out ever’ day, an’ no work,” (350).