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In creating the character of Rose of Sharon, Steinbeck relies heavily on stereotypes. We read that pregnancy has transformed the girl from a “hoyden”—a high-spirited and saucy girl—into a secretive and mysterious woman. Time and again, Steinbeck alludes to the girl’s silent self-containment and her impenetrable smile. This mystical portrayal of pregnancy contrasts with Rose of Sharon’s moments of naivety or suggestibility throughout the Joad family’s journey. She believes wholeheartedly in Connie’s outlandish dream lives and takes Mrs. Sandry’s grim pronouncements for her baby to heart. Steinbeck uses this contrast to prepare Rose of Sharon for the dramatic role she plays at the end of the novel. When she meets the starving man in the barn, she becomes saintly and otherworldly. With Ma’s proud approval, she has stepped into the novel’s vision of holy motherhood, a woman who tends to all her fellows, much like Ma Joad. Her capacity to sustain life, paired with her suffering and grief for her dead child, liken her to the Virgin Mary and suggest that there is hope to be found even in the bleakest of circumstances.
