In The Grapes of Wrath, we observed the several important roles of the women. The women in this novel were idealistic for their sacrifices and their roles in the family. Today, women are often viewed as just simple housewives who are always in control of their husbands, but John Steinbeck's view of womanhood was much different. Womanhood is a term which is actually used to represent women's lives and how they respond to different situations. My essay is going to be on the four most important women of this novel: Ruthie, Grandma, Ma, and Rose of Sharon. From Ruthie, the youngest of the family, to Grandma, each member symbolized and portrayed everyday life for women in rough times. I hope these four women in the following essay inform you a bit about the life during the Depression and how the women made such a great impact.
             The very first woman I would like to talk about is a little girl named Ruthie, the youngest of the Joads. She is a young girl going through puberty that is trying to find her place in this world. She is young and inexperienced, trying to soak up as much knowledge as she can from her older examples. She is stuck between maturing and staying a child. I would like to repeat a quote from The Grapes of Wrath while Ruthie and Winfield were eating candy, "Ruthie, dressed in a real dress of pink muslin that came below her knees, was a little serious in her young-ladiness.... Ruthie felt the might, the responsibility, and the dignity of her developing breasts..." In just that one quote, Steinbeck uses three descriptive words to describe. The word might suggests power, which is used for nurturing and sustaining life. The word responsibility shows that women have a greater responsibility than men do. Finally, the word dignity shows her becoming a woman. When given little responsibility she feels important and feels like she can be trusted with important information that affects the family. She gets so excited at ti...