In Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the main character the Joads undergo the journey to California to search for work and the happiness that was stolen from them. At the end of the novel three family members have died, one friend, one pet, and three family members have left the family for their journey alone. The remaining Joads stumbled across a boy and his dying father. The oldest Joad daughter, whose baby has recently passed, nurses the boys dying father in a barn. "She looked up and the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously." This leads to the belief that Roseofsharon knew that better times were soon to come, signifying that things were looking up for the Joads and others like them.
When the Joads were forced to move from their Oklahoma home Roseofsharon was pregnant. Throughout the novel as times get harder she keeps worrying about the baby, thinking that she is doing things that will jeopardize its life. When the baby is born it is a stillborn. Uncle John let it float down the flooded road to show the world of all of the struggling they had suffered. It seems that after the baby passed it took with it the Joads struggles that they had to face. Shortly after the baby's death and the ending of the flooding the Joads venture down the road and here they find a boy and his dying father. In an agreement that was not spoken verbally Roseofsharon nursed the dying man. When she suckled this man it showed that the death of the baby helped to give life to a man. She was still able to perform her motherly task of nurturing, only it wasn't her baby, but another helpless soul. This helped to show that the stronger people cared for the weaker people.
