This part, said to be the ‘punching point’, later called a ‘survival symbol, not a love symbol’ by Steinbeck (Wartzman) This point was when, at least to Rose of Sharon, it would have seemed as though nothing more could possibly go wrong (unless it immediately began to rain, as the slapstick stereotype would point out). She had lost her husband, her baby, her brother, and her home. Rose of Sharon had very little left, and yet, she still gave to another who was closer to losing one of the only things she had left, life. “If we only value things that are permanent then our lives are utterly worthless. We’ll all be killed by time, illness, or the sword. Would you want to die right now?” (Iwanaga) Some believe that something along the line’s of Ryotaro Iwanaga’s statement was the point of Steinbeck’s putting Rose of Sharon’s sacrifice to the starving man in his