Jesus Christ and Jim Casy
Not all the Americans have been rich all through the American history.
Like any poor man in any country, a poor American is given a chance to consider good and evil deeper than any rich men.
Though not all the poor men come to decide to follow God, there is always one or more in them who try to find a right answer thinking in a right way and eventually reaching a right conclusion. Maybe one of missions of writers is to depict such a man. And it was done by John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (1902 – 1968).
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award[2] and Pulitzer Prize[3] for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they were trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they sought jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
The Grapes of Wrath is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes due to its historical context and enduring legacy.[5][6][7] A celebrated Hollywood film version, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, was made in 1940.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Casy
Who is Reverend Casy? Well, he's a lecherous old man who has given up on his life as a preacher. That's the simple answer. But, boy oh boy, do we miss out on a lot of good stuff if we forget to look further. Casy also happens to be the spiritual compass of the Joad family and of the entire novel.
Casy trumpets a kind of philosophy similar to that first drummed up by the famous American philosopher and thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson believed in one giant, invisible, collective soul that contains the souls of all the creatures of the world. He called this the "Over-Soul." (Read Emerson's essay on the Over-Soul here.) Reverend Casy hold a similar belief. Casy even tells Tom, "Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of" (4.41). Folks, we have the privilege of witnessing a man develop his own philosophy, piece by piece. And just where does this philosophy lead him? Toward a journey westward where he hopes to help his fellow workers. And where does this journey lead him? Toward a mission to fight for equality and justice among migrant workers in California. And where does this mission lead him? Toward his death.
http://www.shmoop.com/grapes-of-wrath/reverend-casy.html
Jim Casy
Steinbeck employs Jim Casy to articulate some of the novel’s major themes. Most notably, the ex-preacher redefines the concept of holiness, suggesting that the most divine aspect of human experience is to be found on earth, among one’s fellow humans, rather than amid the clouds. As a radical philosopher, a motivator and unifier of men, and a martyr, Casy assumes a role akin to that of Jesus Christ—with whom he also shares his initials. Casy begins the novel uncertain of how to use his talents as a speaker and spiritual healer if not as the leader of a religious congregation. By the end of the novel, he has learned to apply them to his task of organizing the migrant workers. Indeed, Casy comes to believe so strongly in his mission to save the suffering laborers that he willingly gives his life for it. Casy’s teachings prompt the novel’s most dramatic character development, by catalyzing Tom Joad’s transformation into a social activist and man of the people.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grapesofwrath/canalysis.html
The Grapes of Wrath Character Analysis - Jim Casy: The Preacher
Jim Casy exists as the philosopher, the motivator and the voice of reason in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The ex-preacher is used to express some of the book's major themes, explicitly articulated in his actions. Jim Casy, by fulfilling his predominant role as the novel's guiding moral voice, establishes not only a sense of god, but also one of morality and justice.
Jim Casy is an ex-preacher who is unsure of how to use the talents he possessed as a preacher, if not as the leader to a flock of Christians. He is a fluent and persuasive speaker and spiritual healer but no longer appreciates his talents. By the end of the novel he learns to apply them towards organizing the migrant workers. He comes to believe so deeply in his goal of saving the tormented workers that he gives his life for them willingly.
The ex-preacher is different from the other characters in that he sees his purpose and what is needed to be done much sooner than the other characters.
http://www.writework.com/essay/grapes-wrath-character-analysis-jim-casy-preacher
Steinbeck manages to give Jim Casey the exact initials as the historical savior (J.C.), which allows the reader to latch onto this connection from the beginning. Yet, Casey's relation to Christ goes beyond such mere coincidences, and plays out rather in their similar plans of action. One of the many similarities between Casey and Christ is that Casey had also drifted out to the forests in order to "soul-search" and discover the answers to sometimes hidden questions. In this particular situation, Casey himself states the comparison of Christ's and his actions while giving a grace at the Joad's breakfast table, "...I been in the hills, thinkin', almost you might say like Jesus went into the wilderness to think His way out of a mess of troubles" (Steinbeck ch.8). Casey further goes on during his rather rambling grace, "I got tired like Him...I got mixed up like Him...I went into the wilderness like Him, without no campin' stuff" (Steinbeck ch.8). With Casey's character openly admitting, without seeming conceited, that he and Jesus Christ are in some way similar, it continues to bluntly let the reader come to realize that Casey was indeed meant to be the Christ figure of this book.
Yet another similarity between Jim Casey and Jesus Christ can be seen when Casey decides to venture off and join a union group in order to prevent...Then, 20 years later, Steinbeck traveled America, driving a car with his wife and a dog named Charley.
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Grapes-Of-Wrath-Jim-Casey-As-11611.html
Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a travelogue written by American author John Steinbeck. It depicts a 1960 road trip around the United States made by Steinbeck, in the company of his French standard poodle, Charley. Steinbeck wrote that he was moved by a desire to see his country on a personal level, since he made his living writing about it. He wrote of having many questions going into his journey, the main one being, "What are Americans like today?" However, he found that he had concerns about much of the "new America" he witnessed.
Part FourAnd now 50 years after Steinbeck's travel with Charley, the US apparently is moving to a direction that is not toward the Kingdom of God but the Kingdom of Wealth.
Heading east again, Steinbeck then cut through the Mojave Desert and made his way to Texas, where he and his wife Elaine attended what he called a Thanksgiving Day "orgy" at a wealthy cattle ranch near Amarillo. Steinbeck, whose third wife Elaine was a Texan, talked at length about the Lone Star State and its citizens and culture. He felt that "people either passionately love or passionately hate Texas," which he described as a "mystique closely approximating a religion," but he loved and respected Texas. After detailing his Thanksgiving at the ranch Steinbeck drove to New Orleans, where he witnessed the angry protests by white mothers outside a recently integrated public school in the Ninth Ward. By the time Steinbeck nears Virginia, he says that in his heart, his journey was over. His journey had ceased to be a journey and became something that he had to endure until he reached his home in New York again. After passing through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Steinbeck finds himself back in New York where, ironically, he realizes that he is lost and has to ask for directions home. As he spent a good deal of his journey lost, it becomes evident at the end of the story that being lost is a metaphor for how much America has changed in Steinbeck's eyes. America, it seems, is in a sense directionless and therefore endangered as it moves into an uncertain future marked by huge population shifts, technological and industrial change, and unprecedented environmental destruction.
In the US today you can be a kind of Jesus Christ or an Obama, but money rules and prevails. Even though serious efforts made by honest and talented Americans in the past are recognized today, they are deprived of revolutionary power aimed at the Kingdom of God.
Nonetheless, are there other Steinbecks in China, India, Brazil, and other G20 countries?
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Joh 6:9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?
Joh 6:10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
Joh 6:11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
Joh 6:12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Joh 6:13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
Joh 6:14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.