Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy is a “growing” symbol of the Joad family, in the Grapes of Wrath, and their trek as they move towards California. Her pregnancy depicts the thoughts and feelings of the Joads, as the baby grows and prospers, it represents a hope rooted in the family. The value of the baby’s life as it fluctuates for them, shows the fluctuating feelings the Joads have for California.
The baby first appears as a symbolic “beacon of hope” for Tom and the rest of his family. As the Joads prepare to leave for California, they have this blissful view of California. They expect to go, receive jobs and start a whole new life, escaping the one that has thrown them into poverty. Connie, Rose of Sharon’s husband, has a whole plan as to what he was planning on doing once he got to California. He talks of educating himself, and providing a house with a white picket fence, the very substance of an American dream. The baby is prosperous, growing strong and the hope of the family is flying on cloud nine, a new creation that gives the family a hope and a dream. The baby is due to be born around the same time they are due to arrive in California. The baby, to them, shows how they will be full of life and curious as a newborn. It gives them a purpose and reason to continue on, Rose of Sharon is extremely happy, with thoughts of California, white fences, new houses, and a brand new life coming into this “perfect” world.
The family then sets off for California, Rose of Sharon becomes cranky and scared, less hopeful as she watches all of the migrants move towards California, the same as her family, suddenly she realizes that the baby may not grow up in a the perfect place that they are planning for her. Sights of poverty and seclusion pass through her mind, and much like that of the Joads hope for California, the baby begins to slow down. It’s almost like it wouldn’t be worth it to bring a child into this messed up world, for them. Connie continues to pump Rose of Sharon’s and even Al’s, Tom’s brother, heads full of thoughts of the “great life in California.” The family chooses to believe this, choosing to remain strong, and like the baby, keep on kicked forward, pushing forward.
When they arrive at the river, and the desert beyond in view, shows the once flowing life of the baby is starting to die out, it seems all well and fine now, with the cool refreshing water, and Rose of Sharon growing bigger every day. They don’t realize how the “desert” in the future will hurt them, the river is only the last lick of life before a crash. Just like the baby, who is growing and kicking, hasn’t yet shown signs of failure, they are so close, the baby is coming in a small amount of time. It seems too good to be true.
It was. The baby loses her father, Connie, who decides to run away, the pressure and realization that he cannot provide for his wife and soon to be new born baby. Now the baby shows how the beacon is slowly dying. A vital part of its life, her father, had left; the one who had pumped up everyone’s heads with thoughts of the better life had run away, leaving the baby and Rose of Sharon. The baby now was functioning with half of its life support.
Finally the baby comes, everyone else is celebrating, yet this baby comes in a dark corner, under a prickly bush. In the midst of happiness, it is sorrowful, fighting to come out, yet having nothing to look forward to, nothing but the stab and pain around it. The baby comes out stillborn, lifeless, with all of the tragedy that has happened to the Joad family, it seems still born, but then Rose of Sharon takes the baby’s second life support, her breast milk, and gives it to a starving man. The original focus of life was gone, true, but a new hope has been found, a new purpose, giving a sense of continuation, the story doesn’t just end, it continues into an unknown abyss. There is a beacon of light, barely flickering in all the darkness, a new found light.
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