mes and wants to be looked at maturely, like she can handle the responsibility; but in reality her response is that of a child's. The greatest example of this would be when Ruthie reveals Tom's whereabouts in chapter 28. A big girl came up to Ruthie and took her box of crackerjacks. They both gave each other a hit or two and Ruthie told the girl that she would get her older brother, who has already killed two people, to kill her. Obviously, she did not realize what she was doing, and forced Tom to leave his family to escape capture by the police. That shows her childish side; yet, Ruthie grows to mature through her older examples and is slowly maturing into a young adult.
             The next person who made an impact in this novel was Granma Joad. When Tom finally reaches home, both Granma and Grampa come to meet him. Granma was a spiritual and a religious woman. Of course she had grown real old. In fact it got to the point that she had timed her responses to the pauses, and it was so many years since she had listened to or wondered at the words used. For example, when the Joads were all sitting at the break
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