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Motif
Explanation and Analysis—Jesus Christ:
Steinbeck repeatedly suggests parallels between Jim Casy and Jesus Christ, a prominent motif throughout the novel. Though Casy disclaims any similarity to Jesus, Steinbeck nevertheless presents him as a Christ-like figure, and the two share the initials "J.C." When he is asked to say grace at the Joad family’s dinner prior to their journey to California, Casy states:
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, without no campin’ stuff. Nighttime I’d lay on my back an’ look up at the stars; morning I’d set an’ watch the sun come up; midday I’d look out from a hill at the rollin’ dry country; evenin’ I’d foller the sun down.
Here, Steinbeck alludes to a biblical story in which Christ spends 40 nights fasting and praying in the desert after his baptism by John the Baptist, as recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and Mark. Like Christ, then, Casy attempts to find his own soul in the wilderness, though he spends more time observing nature than he does communing with God.
Later in the novel, after Ruthie inadvertently reveals to another child that Tom has been hiding from the authorities after killing a man, Ma Joad finds Tom's hiding place in the woods in order to warn him to flee. In his final conversation with his mother in the novel, Tom describes Casy in a way that further develops these parallels to Christ:
He talked a lot. Used ta bother me. But now I been thinkin’ what he said, an’ I can remember— all of it. Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’ he didn’ have no soul that was his’n. Says he foun’ he jus’ got a little piece of a great big soul. Says a wilderness ain’t no good, ’cause his little piece of a soul wasn’t no good ’less it was with the rest, an’ was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn’ think I was even listenin’.
Casy, Tom notes, “talked a lot,” which used to “bother him.” Now, however, Tom reflects upon the dead man’s words, recalling Casy’s story about going “out in the wilderness to find his own soul.” During his sojourn in nature, Casy “foun’ he didn’t have no soul that was his’n.” Rather than finding his own soul, then, Casy “foun’ he just’ got a little piece of a great big soul.” Ultimately, Casy finds that his time in the wilderness was a failure, as a person is incomplete on their own, severed from other people, who constitute pieces of a collective soul.
Casy’s theology is unorthodox. Nevertheless, Steinbeck presents Casy, through these allusions, as a Christ-like figure, imbued with spiritual wisdom. Like Christ, he attempts to lead others towards salvation, which for Casy means living communally and harmoniously with others. Just as the disciples of Jesus spread his word after his crucifixion, Tom has been deeply influenced by Casy’s philosophy, which he now intends to spread after Casy’s death.
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