How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The family became a unit […] Pa was the head of the family now. (13.172)
Pa may be the head of the family, but it sure seems to us like Ma Joad is the one who calls the shots, the one who makes reasoned and sound decisions. We rarely see Pa Joad act like "the head of the family."
Quote #5
In the evening a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream. (17.2)
"Family" is reinterpreted at night when the migrant worker families settle down on the side of Route 66. They reach out to and connect with one another. No one family wants to go it alone. No one family wants to be independent or self-centered. The families seem to need one another to make it. They need each other's support. They are not trying to outdo one another.
Quote #6
At first the families were timid in the building and tumbling worlds, but gradually the technique of building worlds became their technique. Then leaders emerged, then laws were made, then codes came into being. And as the worlds moved westward they were more complete and better furnished, for their builders were more experienced in building them. (17.3)
The families who become one family know the value of laws to protect the unit, to protect the bonds that they form.