[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

Okay, she's actually 19, I just checked. And the topic of a stillbirth could tie into multiple other conditions, which I'll put in bold.

Which is the first step in the problems of her stillbirth at the end of the story.

For most 19 year old mothers, stillbirths would be rare, even during the Great Depression...if they're healthy and relatively unstressed.

But Rose of Sharon was going on a long journey in a crowded truck, with little to eat for food and water. Which is problem number one that would cause it. So malnutrition and dehydration would be hugely impactful. And the family knew this, so their search for food was significantly more desperate...fearing an unwell baby, not a dead one. Her starvation is credited toward the baby's death in the text itself. But she's not starved so completely that she's not able to lactate - which comes in good fortune when she comes to the starving man's rescue.

Stress and poor hygiene would come packed together when travelling a dusty road with multiple family members, including one that was dying. And then the ultimate stress: being abandoned by her brother and her husband.

Malnutrition and its effects on the Joad family as a whole could be a scientific topic to cover in and of itself, but from the "symbolism" of the story, how it impacts Rose of Sharon would probably be the best focus.

This is a good thought. I am going to meditate on it and let you know how it forms. I just got an 87 on a group project in which the professor stated an explanation of how grades were to be given was not mentioned when the rubric asked for the assignments themselves. A little on the pissy side in the quest for an in the degree's hardest course so I looking at all angles including here to gain it.