Chapter 26

Again in chapter twenty six the reader sees that young Tom Joad and Ma have changed rather quickly, along with Pa and Uncle John. Ma and Tom take on more responsibility and help to lead the Joad family as they work in California. The family roles seem to turn upside down, and the earlier leaders of the family, Pa and Uncle John, have been replaced with Ma and Tom Joad. When they go to pick peaches at the Hooper Ranch, Tom, Uncle John, and Pa, who were the working men in Oklahoma, are no longer the only ones who help work. Even Ma works at picking peaches. But not only are they judged by getting work, they are also judged on how they work in the family. "Tom hurried back. 'I got a nickel,' he called. 'I got a nickel. On'y got to do that there twenty times for a dollar.' The children squatted down and picked the peaches out of the extra bucket, and a line of buckets stood ready for them. Tom carried the full boxes to the station. 'That's seven,' he said. 'That's eight. Forty cents we got. Get a nice piece of meat for forty cents.' Uncle John picked slowly. He filled one bucket to two of Tom's. His pace didn't change. In mid-afternoon Ma came trudging out. 'I would a come before, but Rosasharn fainted,' she said. 'Jes' fainted away.'"

Ma became the lead of the family, helping with the now very pregnant Rose of Sharon, buying food, picking peaches, taking care of the younger children, and taking care of the entire family. Many of the decisions of the family were run through her first, or she decided them and they were automatically done. Tom also helps more with work, supporting his family, and trying to protect them. John Steinbeck includes this switch of the family places to show that it did not matter. In all of the migrant families the position of the people in the families did not matter; what mattered was that all the people in the family able to help, actually did help their families. In their time of need, desolation, and sadness, the Joad family kept going on account that their family was staying together for the moment, and that everyone able was helping in whatever way they could.