Jim Casy was an essential character to John Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath. His character was an important part of Tom Joad’s life, the main character of Steinbeck’s piece of literature. Casy was the preacher who baptized Tom when he was little and has known the Joad family for a very long time. Jim Casy was a former preacher in the town where Tom grew up. He decided to quit his work because of the thought that he wasn’t meant to be a preacher. Although leaving his job, Casy remains a strong speaker who uses his teachings throughout the novel. He proves this by traveling along with the Joads to California in search of farm work while sharing his teachings and beliefs with others.
In the beginning of Steinbeck’s piece, Casy is introduced when Tom sees him sitting at a tree. When he approaches him, Tom learns that Casy has been undecisive to whether or not to leave preaching behind and following his own beliefs. Jim starts questioning the definition of sin and what it is and how he believes there is no such thing. He goes on to say, “Before I knowed it, I was sayin’ out loud, ‘The hell with it! There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing,’” (Steinbeck, 24). Casy believes that the holy spirit is the spirit of humanity and that there is no such thing as a sin, it’s just how people choose to act upon different situations. He strongly believes that sticking with other people will benefit you in life, being alone will just go downhill. Working as a team and a group was one of Casy’s strongest beliefs and that working alone in life will not have the same performance as working together. Jim knows that his beliefs would not be accepted by the church and so he decided to retire. He also knew that his beliefs wouldn’t necessarily be accepted by society as well, so he decided to just do teachings on his own.
Once Jim Casy and Tom Joad meet and catch up, he impacts Joad’s life in the most brilliant way. Joad then goes through one of the biggest changes throughout The Grapes of Wrath, which changes the whole plot of the novel. Casy represents many aspects in Steinbeck’s novel. For instance, people view him as some sort of Godlike figure, not just because he is a preacher, but because he is a spokesman who people who look up to and he always has motivational things to say. Jim Casy also represents generous and selflessness character. When Tom has the incident with the police, Casy took the fall knowing Tom was on parole. Doing this, he was risking his own life and was arrested.
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Casy himself even say, “I ain’t sayin’ I’m like Jesus… But I got tired like him, an’ I got mixed up like him, an’ I went into the wilderness like him… On’y I couldn’ figure what I was prayin’ to or for. There was the hills, an’ there was me, an’ we wasn’t seperate no more. We was one thing. An’ that one thing was holy” (Steinbeck, 81). Casy was clueless all the time as well and didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, he just knew strongly that he would stick together and stand up for others. Jim was always the type of person to keep to himself, but by showing this act of kindness towards Tom, he showed his true colors and how he deeply cares for others.
While out of arrest, Casy organized the migrant workers and was preparing them for a strike against the peach-picking business for the little pay. Casy was a strong leader who believed being in a group and working together would over power anything. Before seeing the outcome of what he created, Casy unfortunately was killed by an officer, leaving behind his strong beliefs and teachings. In justice, Tom killed the murderer of his fellow friend and former preacher, Jim Casy.
Jim Casy was a representation of the author of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck. This is because Casy’s goals in life were for his teachings to affect others lives, which did occur, as his beliefs influenced other characters such as Tom. The author wanted to do the same through his writing. His stories would raise awareness for certain topics which made his similar to Jim Casy.
