As her family continues to crumble, Ma's strength, drawn intuitively from love, continues to grow, making her a physical symbol of the humanism strand of Steinbeck's social theory. The family is disintegrating as the Joads are forced to leave the Wilsons behind, Noah refuses to leave the water at the Colorado River, and Granma dies. Ma fights against this destruction, defending her clan against mounting intrusions and circumstances.
When the religious woman at the camp offers to pray over the ill Granma, Ma sends her on her way, preferring to keep the privacy of her family. She is stung by the venomous intrusion of the sheriff who warns her that they don't want any "Okies" settling down and she responds physically, threatening him with a skillet. Unable to defend Granma against death, she chooses to put the needs of the living ahead of those who have passed. Keeping quiet about Granma's death, she allows the family to get across the desert. Casy's response when he learns about her heroism stands as a definition of Ma's character, "There's a woman so great with love — she scares me."
With each strike against the family, Ma's strength is doubled, but her desperate desire to maintain the family will be thwarted the longer they stay in California. Although she is considered a symbol of human love, it is a love of family above all others that she practices. As the family's economic plight worsens, Ma can do nothing to keep them together. She will be forced to replace her immediate family with a world family, one that includes the entire community.
