The main protagonist, Tom Joad, appears in the beginning of the book as a hardened ex-convict but as the book progress the reader is exposed to the many layers of Tom Joad. Tom murders a man at a dance which earns him a four year jail sentence, although he gets out early on probation. One of the first people Tom encounters outside of the prison walls is a nosy truck driver whose implacable questions push him over the edge leading him to not only profess his past murder, but to embrace it (☺ metaphor). “I don’t give a d*** who knows it,” Tom boldly states (Steinbeck 18). This line demonstrates a side of Tom that is comparable to the song Bad to the Bone (by: George Thorogood and The Destroyers). In Bad to the Bone, Thorogood conveys a stern…show more content… She acts as a role model by protecting her family and by being an upstanding, strong woman full of prowess. The living conditions that she is raised as a child are the same conditions that she raises her family in. She knows she must be resistant to the bad in the world. When Tom is reunited with her after being released from jail he reflects on her faultlessness saying, “She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken,” (Steinbeck 100). She especially demonstrates her strength when she loses her house and land to tractors. As growing stressors mount on Pa Joad, Ma Joad gradually becomes the head of the house (for the time period of the great depression this was a big deal). The struggles and strength of Ma Joad reminds me of the opening lines of a song called Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The song goes, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality. Open your eyes look up to the skies and see, … I need no sympathy,” I believe this perfectly describes Ma Joad. Although she is faced with difficulties, she stays strong as a rock for the sake of her family (☺
