Mama finally stands up to Dee and realizes the beauty in Maggie. Mama is a simple woman. She has worked hard her entire life and has done the best to support her family. Although Mama may not agree with Dee, it seems as if she is caught up in Dee’s opinions and behavior. Almost as if she wants to be enough for Dee because she knows she never has been.
Mama resents the education, sophistication, and air of superiority that Dee has acquired over the years. Mama fantasizes about reuniting with Dee on a television talk show and about Dee expressing gratitude to Mama for all Mama has done for her. This brief fantasy reveals the distance between the two and how under appreciated Mama feels. Despite this brief daydream, Mama remains a practical woman with few illusions about how things are. Mama is a single parent raising two daughters.
I lived in my elder sisters hand-me-downs for many years. This has taught me, not only the value of money and material items, but also how to be patient. I can now employ patience within my work place, and can understand why life might be financially challenging for some of the elderly people that I look after. I was always considered as being a bit of a 'soft touch' when I was younger, constantly letting others have their way. In my older life, and particularly within my job role, this has taught me that I can be emphatic and sympathetic towards people.
Her constant work to improve their lives has made her one of the most loved, and one of the most revered women of her generation. She travelled the country independently, visited coal miners and factory workers, wrote newspaper columns and opinion pieces, visited soldiers
She’s the responsible one too, she got married to a wonderful (but boring) husband and raised her kids well. Last but not least, there’s Win. Win is extremely self-conscious. She always grew up in Vivi’s shadow. She’s the brains of the family, and sometimes the financial relief.
As such an admired mother and person in general, her family and friends attempt to bring Henrietta's legacy to life in appreciation to her. Deborah Lacks Deborah is confused and caring. Deborah is confused because she has all different types of information about her mother thrown at her. A majority of people assumes all she wants is credit when in actuality, she just wants the single, straightforward story of her mother. Rebecca Skloot Rebecca is curious and eager.
Witnessing my mother going through her struggles and overcome her addiction crack to gain her life and family back has helped me to see there is a future. Watching my stepdad accept my mother with all her faults in the beginning of their relationship and be there to help her heal taught me this lesson. I learned to forgive and forget and use your past as your lesson for the future. Today, my mother is a focused, stronger person because of what she went through. She has gained more than what she had before.
Dobson is “Rules without relationships lead to rebellion.” (Dobson, 217). I am a living witness of this quote and how my parents raised me personally. I grew up in a household without my father where my mother and grandmother played the role of father and mother. However, my mother was not the parent figure I clung to always, but more so my grandmother. My grandmother and I had a great relationship where I could tell her anything, we could go shopping or out to eat together.
Martha Ballard is able to go beyond what I would have expected a woman from the late 18th century, could do. She is as a free spirit yet still completes her obligations as a wife. She is not made to stay at home and care for her children and husband, and although she does that job with great pride, Martha can be described as a woman with many professions, “…a midwife, nurse, physician, mortician, pharmacist and attentive wife [and mother]…” (Pg. 40). But how typical was this in her era?
She isn’t the traditional American house wife that watches the children, cook meals, and wash and make clothes for the family. Ma Joad keeps all of her emotions to herself and hates family separation. She is Strong, hopeful, willful, and unbreakable and the most valuable supporter of the family during the period of hard times. Ma Joad as a main Character of the book drives her family into spiritual survival. All characters in The Grapes of Wrath bear moment's of deep self disappointment; however, Ma does not create a chance for them to stumble.