Is This The Creepiest Ending Ever?
I do my best to not give away the endings of the novels I’m reading on this blog.
We can talk about themes, symbolism, writing style, etc, etc, etc, without getting into the specifics of the ending.
With that said, SPOILER ALERT on today’s post about The Grapes Of Wrath. Really, this isn’t a huge spoiler. The ending makes no sense unless you’ve read the novel. It’s not like the entire Joad family gets eaten by coyotes or anything like that.
So all I want to do today is share with you the final passage of The Grapes of Wrath. If you’ve read the novel, you know that last paragraph is just weird–and a little graphic.
To set the stage, Rose of Sharon, who is recently pregnant and just lost a baby, and a few of the remaining Joads have found shelter in an old barn. Upon entering, they realize two men, obviously struggling and near death, have already occupied the abandoned barn.
So, without further nonsensical ramblings:
For a minute Rose of Sharon sat still in the whispering barn. Then she hoisted her tired body up and drew the comfort around her. She moved slowly to the corner and stood looking down at the wasted face, into the wide, frightened eyes. Then slowly she lay down beside him. He shook his head slowly from side to side. Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. “You got to,” she said. She squirmed closer and pulled his head close. “There!” she said. “There.” Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.
Come again?
That junk is just crazy. That right there is a grown man breastfeeding–and I mean, literally, breastfeeding–on a woman he just met. Okay, forget the “woman he just met” part. Let’s rephrase it: That right there is a grown man breastfeeding on a woman.
Way to leave us with a nasty taste in our mouth, Steinbeck.
The situation is so bad, so dire—combined with the fact that she just delivered a stillborn baby—that this option was apparently the guy’s only source of nutrition. Or that’s what I’m supposed to believe.
There’s all kinds of symbolism going on there, which I won’t dive into in this post. But, nonetheless, what a creepy, uncomfortable ending.
Am I wrong here? Is that possibly the creepiest ending in all of literature?
Ooh, I don’t remember that ending, but that’s just odd.
I think I blanked out that ending when I read Grapes of Wrath in high school…now I know why it was summer reading material, they didn’t want to discuss the ending in class…
Aren’t you so glad that I reminded you?
I’m so very, very happy.
I think what makes it weird is the “smiled mysteriously.” Whyyyyyyyy is she smiling mysteriously? Grapes of Wrath was required summer reading before my junior year of high school. My English teacher told me later that in previous years, she had students write an additional chapter, but she got so tired of reading about the wedding between Rose of Sharon and that guy that she gave up on the assignment. I have never stopped being grateful for that.
That must have been painful for the teacher. I think kids (and many adults) can’t really process the idea of breasts being anything but sexual.
Very painful for the teacher…and yet, I am laughing out loud with pure joy at the hilarity. I love kids. It’s more than high school students viewing breasts as mainly sexual, their writing about the wedding highlights their innocence as well; the students couldn’t comprehend that a woman would be that intimate with somebody and then not marry him. In their minds, a marriage provided the happy ending that they were craving but didn’t get. Clearly the symbolism was lost on them, but who cares? Most of them will “get it” in a decade.
Desperate people in dire circumstances do things that strike us as strange, or creepy or weird. Better this than a violent act, right? I remember reading somewhere the following injunction: “Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.” Also, ask any breastfeeding mother about the pressure, even pain, of unreleased milk production. This may explain the smile.
I obviously can’t relate, but that does seem to explain a smile.
I always thought it was sort of beautiful. That humanity is so inherently good that even after all the tragedy the Joads have faced, they still want to help their fellow man, even if it involves an incredibly intimate act that would provably cause rose of Sharon a lot of personal grief.
I can see that. Whatever it is, it’s definitely provocative.
I think it’s beautiful too. The fact that she has something to offer a starving person, that the milk that was rendered useless by the death of her child is suddenly not useless anymore is validating. After feeling superfluous throughout the entire book, this seems to give her a sense of purpose if only for a moment.
I know what yr saying but I thought of it as an incredibly powerful ending as they were so desperate to go to such distasteful/ lengths.
It certainly has a stunning effect that’s for sure
No doubt…stunning and powerful. But still creeped me out.
Warned ya, didn’t I?
I know what you mean, though. I said, “Yow!” (or something to that effect) when I read that paragraph.
Of course, this is Steinbeck’s last “message,” in a “message”-filled novel: that even in the worst of times (the Joads had just escaped a flood, too), people are capable of acts of incredible (choose your definition of THAT word) acts of kindness and humanity.
I wonder if he used beatific, rather than mysterious, to describe Rose of Sharon’s smile in earlier drafts. It would fit, after all, as he once again shows us (or, if you prefer, beats us over the head with) the Joads’ saintly nature.
You did warn me!
I read Grapes of Wrath, many many years ago. I didn’t remember the ending. However, being a Mother and Grandmother, I can relate to Rose of Sharon’s relief, and her smile could have meant just that.
I always thought it was kind of lovely! But maybe I am just a breastfeeding weirdo.
Also, now I am thinking of the part in Game of Thrones when Daenerys comes out of the fire breastfeeding her dragons…
I don’t think you’re the weirdo…looks like you have a lot of support on here. Guess I’m the weirdo..
Everyone’s a weirdo! Huzzah!
I have to say, one of the more interesting endings i’ve read. I remember my sophomore year of high school talking about this for a good period and i don’t think i ever really figured it out.
Can’t say for sure, but I’m getting the impression that the folks who aren’t “creeped out” by this ending are women of a certain age who have given birth/breastfed. Craft Fear’s statement about the action validating Rose of Sharon was on target.
Theese people prob didn’t think it was that creepy either – at least the guy in the barn had no option. http://www.signature9.com/food/baby-gaga-breast-milk-ice-cream-if-everyone-jumped
Now that’s nasty!
Yep. I think that’s a fair impression. I think women probably have a better understanding of this.
I thought it was a beautiful ending. It’s creepy if you imagine a beautiful woman’s breast being suckled in a uhm, lustful manner, but given the circumstances (the flood, the death of the baby, famine, etc.), I thought it’s a very hopeful ending.
Might be important to note that I read this book while pregnant with my second child, and very shortly after weaning my first.
I found the ending devastating, haunting, and desperately sad but hopeful. It’s just so awful to think that there is a man lying there starving, and the only person who can do anything about it is a teenage girl. And the only reason she can do anything is because she just gave birth to a stillborn baby. It’s just too much. Or, looking at it from the other side, how wonderful that after everything this family’s been through, they have the compassion to do this.
I did find it shocking – I remember thinking “WOW did I really just read that,” and after re-reading, “Can’t believe a man wrote this.”
Not that i think Steinbeck was making any statement on breastfeeding. I agree that there’s heavy symbolism happening here. As there was in the whole of Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy and labour.
There’s also an element of historical allusion. There is an ancient Roman story about a woman who feeds her starving father in the same way. I came across this while Googling Rose of Sharon to refresh myself on the details. Wikipedia cites Rose of Sharon`s act as an example of “Roman Charity.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Charity
All that to say: I didn’t find it creepy. It could be my perspective… it’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen breasts as anything but a food delivery system
Wow — if anything, this ending elicits a lot of responses.
I’m somewhere in the middle, but for me the “creepiness” factor comes from what this woman and the people around her are forced to do. Maybe her mysterious smile is a mocking type, from Steinbeck to reader at the end, as he’s finally forcing the reader to witness this unnatural act.
It’s a sad ending and in my view you aren’t human if it doesn’t make you cry (http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/grapes-of-wrath-by-john-steinbeck/). But it is also a powerful ending that shows the destitution of the Great Depression. I will never forget this book.