Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath concludes in a grotesque yet powerful scene in which Rose of Sharon, having just lost her own child, breastfeeds a dying stranger in a rain-soaked barn surrounded by flooded cotton fields. This scene has garnered a great deal of criticism and analysis, both negative and posi- tive.
Though controversial, the breastfeeding quote in The Grapes of Wrath symbolizes the Joad family's resilience and their willingness to retain their humanity and empathy.
Rosasharn generously agrees to breastfeed the old man to save his life. This is a symbol for the generosity and love the Joad family continuously brings, even during the hardest of times.
Her baby is stillborn due to a lack of nutrition. While faced with hardships, her generosity and love for others is shown when she gives the only thing she is able to offer a starving old man, her breastmilk.
But what does it all mean? Well, we don't know about you, but this ending makes us think about new life, second chances, and the innate kindness that lies within all people. It also makes us think, "Life is so sad.
Loosening the blanket that covers her body, she offers her full breast of milk to the dying man. As he drinks, a mysterious smile appears on her lips. Rosasharn's gesture in the closing lines of the novel can be considered a completion of the life cycle, an act that reaffirms the themes of re-birth and survival.
The tragic death of the Joad family dog on the highway symbolizes the dangers lurking in unknown situations. The children's excitement for the vicious slaughter of the pigs symbolizes the powerful's tendency to oppress the weak.
For some people, the decision to breastfeed is an easy one. But others face barriers related to mental and physical health, finances, practicality, or information.
Rose of Sharon's stillborn baby is a literal representation of the inhumane conditions that the migrant laborers must endure. The failed pregnancy symbolizes the impossibility of cultivating life in the toxic environment of hostility, prejudice, and extortion that the Okies face day in and day out in California.
She offers her milk to a stranger, a man dying of starvation. With this act, Rose of Sharon comes to represent the full circle of human unity: Despite her own position of need, she is able to give life.
Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months protects your baby from many illnesses, such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections. For the mother breastfeeding reduces bleeding and chances of ovarian and breast cancers.
The general symbolism of breastfeeding is physical and emotional support, taking care of others, motherly love, tenderness, nurturing, and love.
Milk, then, symbolises abundance, nourishment, and motherhood, because of its properties as a food for very small children before they can 'eat' anything else.
Like Hagar, Ruth's "narrow but deep" passions render her incapable of differentiating between sex and love. Consequently, for Ruth, nursing Milkman is not a maternal, nurturing act but a secret, furtive ritual she engages in for her own sexual pleasure.
This year, the theme for World Breastfeeding Week (WBW 2022) is Step up for Breastfeeding - Educate and Support. Since 2016, WBW has been aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2018, a World Health Assembly resolution endorsed WBW as an important breastfeeding promotion strategy.
He who created mankind as male and female designed them to procreate (Genesis 1:27-28). And in order to nourish and nurture the children born from the union of man and woman, our Creator designed the female anatomy for breastfeeding an infant.
Wainwright informs him that Rose of Sharon has delivered a stillborn baby. The family sends Uncle John to bury the child. He ventures into the storm, places the improvised coffin in the stream, and watches the current carry it away.
It attracts butterflies. The big and beautiful blooms on your Rose of Sharon plant beckon butterflies to come and visit. The butterflies can also sip from the blooms for food, making it quite desirable to them. If you love attracting butterflies to your yard, a Rose of Sharon is perfect for getting the job done!
When the family settles into a campground, Rose of Sharon hears a story about a woman who ''dropped'' her baby because she went to a dance. From this point on, Rose of Sharon becomes terrified that she is going to have a miscarriage. Sadly, Rose of Sharon gives birth to a stillborn child.
This is called idiopathic galactorrhea, and it may just mean that your breast tissue is particularly sensitive to the milk-producing hormone prolactin in your blood. If you have increased sensitivity to prolactin, even normal prolactin levels can lead to galactorrhea.
If You Don't Breastfeed
You should expect your breasts to decrease in size within a week or two, as your milk dries up.
Once she stops expressing the milk, the breasts can stop lactating, till pregnancy happens once more. According to the medical practitioners at AMRI Hospitals, one of the best hospitals in Kolkata, a woman can produce breast milk for twenty, thirty or more years, as long as there is a constant need for it,.
Situational Irony
The Joad's left Oklahoma because the severe drought conditions resulted in the Dust Bowl. They arrive in California to find that it is also suffering from a drought as well as an overpopulated work force. Ironically, the final obstacle that the Joad's face at the end of the novel is a flood.
The novel is deeply concerned with fertility, what the earth and people can produce, which makes the grapes of wrath an apt metaphor for an anger that's fed and cultivated by hardship and hurt.
John Steinbeck uses the turtle as a symbol to represent Tom Joad, his family, and the human race because the turtle is a prime example of an animal that struggles to survive amid all the obstacles life throws at it.