Ma frowned. "Rosasharn," she said, "you stop pickin’ at yourself. You’re jest ateasin’ yourself up to cry. I don’ know what’s come at you. Our folks ain’t never did that. They took what come to ’em dry-eyed. I bet it’s that Connie give you all them notions. He was jes’ too big for his overhalls." And she said sternly, "Rosasharn, you’re jest one person, an’ they’s a lot of other folks. You git to your proper place. I knowed people built theirself up with sin till they figgered they was big mean shucks in the sight a the Lord."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 22. Whenever someone in the Joad family is in trouble or pain, Ma is there to support and comfort them. Her love for family is limitless and she will try to make them happy, whatever it takes. In this case Rose of Sharon fears losing her baby after she is rattled by a religious fanatic who links sin to miscarriages. Rose of Sharon starts out in the story as an immature, needy, self-absorbed and self-pitying girl who is dependent on her family. Later she will mature into a capable woman who can do things for herself and for others.