further than the immediate relation. When brought into the Joad family, Casy is considered one of the clan, and he lives up to that title respectably when faced with the decision to do so. After a fight breaks out at a Hooverville where the Joads are camped, Casy chooses to take the rap for hitting the officer, instead of letting Tom, knowing it would get him sent back to prison for breaking parole. "If you mess in this your whole fambly, all your folks, gonna get in trouble. I don' care about you. But your ma and your pa, they'll get in trouble. Maybe they'll send Tom back to McAlester (363)." He won't even argue about it, not changing his mind even when Al tells him that "[he] think[s] [he's] a damn fool (363)." To willingly go to jail for someone (especially one that's not truely your kin) lets the reader know how far love can go, even for a surrogate family.When Connie leaves Rose of Sharon unexplainably, once again the family pulls together in a time of need. Although it's done in a very tactless manner, Pa tries to tell Rose of Sharon that Connie "wasn' no good," and that "[they] didn't want him [anyway]." It's meant to be positive, yet it hurts her feelings and Ma has to hush Pa before he says something worse. And instead of treating Rose of Sharon like an outcast for being a single mother, they embrace her and continue to support her throughout her pregnancy.Through Granma's death, Rose of Sharon's baby being stillborn, Tom's hiding out from the cops, and the flooding of their boxcar, which were some of the family's major tragedies, the Joads managed to stay together. Despite many times when it would have been easier to go their own ways, they fought to remain a family and succeeded. They proved family values again and again to each other and finally reached out to spread some of that love to complete strangers. Rose of Sharon selflessly saved another man's life by offering to him her breast milk. By the end of t...
