"An’ Ma ain’t nobody you can push aroun’ neither. I seen her beat the hell out of a tin peddler with a live chicken one time ’cause he give her a argument. She had the chicken in one han’, an’ the ax in the other, about to cut its head off. She aimed to go for that peddler with the ax, but she forgot which hand was which, an’ she takes after him with the chicken. Couldn’ even eat that chicken when she got done. They wasn’t nothing but a pair a legs in her han’."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 6. Ma Joad is one tough woman, according to a story told by her son Tom. As we will discover later, Ma emerges as the strong leader of the Joad family.