This photograph is called “Migrant Mother” and it was taken in 1936 during the dust bowl migration west. In this photo we see the toll that a migration has on someone; providing for a family and attempting to move across the country with little to nothing. Tom Joad, in the Grapes of Wrath, is similar to the woman because Tom fills the position of the head of the family. During the migration, Tom plans out the route, finds places for the family to stay at night, talks to store clerks and other people on behalf of the family. In this photo the mother is the family member others rely on. She is staring off into the distance the photo and makes it appear as if she is thinking about ways to provide for her family. Similarly, Tom is constantly thinking about the family and how to make it to California. The children in the photo are physically and mentally leaning on her and trusting the mom to survive. They are wearing dirty torn clothes; so, we can determine that they have been on the road somewhere and are struggling. The Joad family is in the same position, they have not bathed, are riding in the trunk of a car across the desert with heat stroke, and they are all leaning on Tom to get them to their destination.
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One reply on “The Migrant Mother”
I agree. I think that Tom definitely took on one of the larger roles throughout the Joads’ troubles on the road and it has begun to take a toll on him. The readers have watched him organize the family and almost lose his self control under the stress until he killed the man who yelled at Casy and he realized his connection to his family may be dangerous. His first thought is to flee but I think that, like the Migrant Mother, he realized his family relys on him and he needs to stay nearby.
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