Granma put on a very brave face and just kept pushing on when Grampa died in chapter thirteen of Grapes of Wrath. though she had just lost the companion she had had by her side for decades and raised a family with, she was the picture of grace and dignity as she walked out of the tent that he died in, and she held her headhigh as she knelt to be surrounded by her family. Through her the lesson can be learned about showing a brave face in the midst of tragedy.
Ma, too, was extremely brave. She had to go lay out her own father for burial. She had to accept the fact that this man who had raised her and been strong and wise for as ldong as she could remember was gone, and that was all on top of all the stress and hardship that was already going on in her life as it was. This display of strength and courage in spite of everything is very admirable and awe-inspiring. When the woman who was helping her prepare her father for burial commented on how well her mother was holding up she replied:
"'Why, she's so old,' said Ma, 'maybe she don't even rightly know what happened. Maybe she won't really know for quite a while. Bvesides, us folks takes a prid eholdin' in. My pa used to say, "anybody can break down. It takes a man not to." We always try to hold in.'
Through this chapter you can really see how Ma and Granma come from the same stock. They are both incredibly brave in the face of tragedy, if not in denial. They continue to push forward even after they lose their father and husband who, although he fell out of the seat of power and moved on to simply giving advice at times and just mainly voicing random opinions about things at other times, he was still the head patriarch of the family and they all still lived on the example of strength and power that he represented, as you can see from the above quote. Losing Grampa was a devastating blow to the Joads who only wanted to keep their family together, yet they showed amazing gifts as they pushed forward despite it all.
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