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First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they’ve always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let’s just say out of it. On any other day they’d have seen her outside on the deck of her trailer home, good neighbors taking notice, pestering the tit of trouble as they will. (Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead)

Does the author mean tits as boobs? (Considering that she is a new mom.) But why would it be described as tit of trouble? What is the author trying to deliver here?

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    I can't really give a conclusive answer without knowing more about the source, but words like "breast", "teat", or "tit" are often used metaphorically in English, to mean e.g. a source of nourishment or source of other things.
    – Stuart F
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 9:02
  • The reader could associate the mild vulgarity of the word with the vulgarity of trailer trash the writer mentions
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 13:48
  • The author may be alluding to the fact that she is a new mom, but such a link seems fairly tenuous. (The author's mother "pesters the tit of trouble" on "any other day", not on the day of the author's birth, so there seems to be little direct connection to that event, also.)
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 14:29
  • Barbara Kingsolver was raised in Appalachian Kentucky, and she still lives in Appalachia. They speak a distinctive dialect of English in Appalachia, and the language of the book is heavily influenced by it. I doubt this tit has anything to do with boobs, but the only way to figure out what it actually means is to find a reference on Appalachian English or to ask somebody who knows it. Kingsolver can write perfectly in standard english when she wants to.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 15:03
  • 2
    Maybe this belongs in literature.stackexchange.com
    – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_
    Commented May 15, 2023 at 19:37

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This is speculatory, and it's possible a better answer may come along.

My guess is that this is figurative; it doesn't seem to be a set expression or phrase. (Kingsolver is known for her flowery prose, so it sort of fits with what I know of her style.)

In mammals, the tit, or teat, releases milk when stimulated. Presumably, the tit of trouble, when pestered, dishes out hardship or strife.

I'm not quite sure what it means here, but it seems that her neighbors have seen her tempting trouble on that deck.

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    Yes. That more general, literal use of the word "tit" is rather old-fashioned, but in a literary context you can get away with it.
    – alphabet
    Commented May 18, 2023 at 18:13

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