The Grapes of Wrath
By: Jillian Spera
Intro
Rose of Sharon
Traits
Immaturity
Like a lot of people it takes a lot of time for Rose of Sharon to truly grow up. Some would even say that her younger brother and sister both grow up faster than she does. Ruthie and Winfield are only twelve and ten but lose their childhood innocence at such a young age and are easily able to behave more maturely because of it. On the other hand Rose lives in a fantasy land where she thinks everything is going to work out perfectly and she and Connie will always be happy. She also wants her baby to be perfect in every way and relies on her mother to help her keep the baby healthy. As the family gets deeper and deeper into their journey and encounter more road blocks than ever before Rose of Sharon still believes that she is essentially the center of the universe: "The world had drawn close around them, and... Rose of Sharon was in the center of it with Connie making a small orbit around her." (Steinbeck 140)
Optimism
Rose of Sharon believes that there will always be a better life for her, Connie and their child once they reach California. Despite being the most annoying character in the novel, Rose is also the one who thinks everything will turn out all right in the end. After all she physically embodies hope due to the fact that she is pregnant with her first child. This precious, unborn life symbolizes that there is still something yet to come and all they have to do is wait until they get to their better life. Optimism is very important in this novel because all of the characters other than Rose and Connie need a little in their lives. The rest of Rose's family knows times are very hard and that they need to create a new life in order to survive. A they travel further west they become increasingly more worried as they are told that there is no work despite all the papers advertising there are plenty of jobs. Some of the time there would be people coming to hire but they would mainly be false promises: "Twicet now I've fell for that. Maybe he needs a thousand' men. He'll get five thousand' there, an' he'll pay fifteen cents an hour. [and you'll] have to take it 'cause you'll be hungry." (Steinbeck 290). Despite all these drawbacks the family pushes on due to the optimism of Rosasharn and keeping the family safe. Ma even takes the most drastic of measures to keep the family hopeful: "I tol' Granma we could' he'p her. [We had to keep going.] There was the young ones -an' Rosasharn's baby." (Steinbeck 252) Ma goes through all this trouble to see that the symbol of hope lives on.
Growth
The quote above really applies to the novel as Rose was a not only wrong to believe that everything would be perfect in the promised land of California, but also that most of her biggest fears would become true due to her wishful thinking. Rose wanted to have a happy, healthy baby more than anything, but soon after Connie left she became scared of what would happen without him. Rose became increasingly more dependent on her mother who tried, but ultimately failed to assure her that she was fine and just needs to calm down and stop fretting over the little things. Sometimes Ma gets so annoyed with Rose's unnecessary complaining: "Got no husband'! Got no milk!" (Steinbeck 390), that she threatens her: "If you was a well girl, I'd take a whang at you. Right in the face." (Steinbeck 390). Rose is also seriously worried about the health of her unborn child. Her biggest fears come true when she delivers a stillborn in the middle of a flood. Rose carried the baby for nine months as a symbol of hope and just like that it's gone. All hope that Rose and the rest of the family had is gone along with the baby. Connie and her child, two of the people she loved most are dead and there is nothing she can do about it.