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Her whole thought and action were directed inward on the baby. She balanced on her toes now, for the baby’s sake. And the world was pregnant to her; she thought only in terms of reproduction and of motherhood.
This quotation comes from Chapter 10, during the first description of Rose of Sharon. The book in general portrays motherhood as an important calling for a woman, a place of power. Aside from Jim Casy’s spiritual humanizing, pregnancy and the physical changes surrounding it are also places where Steinbeck uses the most spiritual language, treating it as something quasi-mystical. The focus on this role dominates Rose of Sharon’s character, making her appear flat at times as she sees her future primarily in terms of the baby.
“Me an’ Connie don’t want to live in the country no more,” the girl said. “We got it all planned up what we gonna do.”
Here, in Chapter 16, Rose of Sharon shares with Ma the dreams she and Connie have been planning for their lives. Rose of Sharon, despite being married and pregnant, is still quite young and naïve, and she is unable to realize that Connie is a big dreamer but not a steady man capable of following through on those dreams. Throughout the story, Rose of Sharon is easily influenced by the people around her, quickly latching on to Connie’s beautiful plans without having the experience or practicality to recognize them for the fantasies they are.
“What chance I got to have a nice baby? Connie’s gone, an’ I ain’t gettin’ good food. I ain’t gettin’ milk.” Her voice rose hysterically. “An’ now you kill a fella. What chance that baby got to get bore right?”
In Chapter 26, Rose of Sharon panics and berates Tom after she learns that he’s killed a man. At this point in the novel, with Connie having left her, and frightened by the words of Mrs. Sandry at the government camp, Rose of Sharon is convinced that the circumstances surrounding her pregnancy are threatening her baby. Although Ma berates Rose of Sharon for her outbursts, there is a grain of truth to her fears. An environment of malnourishment and instability is not healthy for a pregnant woman. Her worry emphasizes the inhumanity of the situation.
“You got to,” she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. “There!” she said. “There.” Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.
In Chapter 30, Rose of Sharon grows into her symbolic role of strength and selflessness, as modeled to her by Ma Joad, by offering her breast milk to a malnourished man. The mysterious smile she offers echoes the mysterious aura surrounding her early in her pregnancy. Just as that language portrays the early joy she had as powerful and beautiful, here it lends a similar spiritual potency to the moment as miraculous and lifegiving. In nursing the dying man, Rose of Sharon’s posture evokes two common artistic depictions of the Virgin Mary: nursing the baby Jesus and cradling the crucified Jesus.
