Quote 7
[Ma Joad:] "Besides, us folks takes a pride holdin' in. My pa used to say, 'Anybody can break down. It takes a man not to.' We always try to hold in." (13.213)
Do men ever break down in this novel?
Quote 8
[Ma Joad:] "I'm a-gonna tell you somepin about bein' in the pen. You can't go thinkin' when you're gonna be out. You'd go nuts. You got to think about that day, an' then the nex' day, about the ball game Sat'dy. That's what you got to do. Ol'timers does that. A new young fella gets buttin' his head on the cell door. He's thinkin' how long it's gonna be. Whyn't you do that? Jus' take ever'day." (10.9)
Ma Joad has to learn how to think like a prisoner in order to cope with life. Going to prison has taught Tom some valuable life lessons.
Quote 9
[Ma Joad:] "Well, I'm a-scairt about it. Sometimes you do a crime, an' you don't even know it's bad. Maybe they got crimes in California we don't even know about. Maybe you gonna do somepin an' it's all right, an' in California it ain't all right." (13.107)
What crimes do we witness in this novel, and who commits them?