"Almost she don’t want to go to California, fear she’ll never see you no more."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 8. Pa Joad tells his son Tom that his mother was reluctant to go to California, in case she never saw Tom again. This foreshadows the true reality of the California dream, Ma Joad’s feminine intuition seemingly warns her that something about the move west isn’t right. It also shows Ma Joad’s strong family bond and desire to keep the family together.