The Grapes of Wrath The Preacher

The preacher, or Jim Casy, is by far one the most interesting characters in the novel. He was a preacher, but quit preaching and hitched along with the Joads to find his own answers to life. He was relatively wise and philosophical. "If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, not rich like Mis' Wilson was when she give her tent when Grandpa died." (Steinbeck 207) This pretty much sums up Casy's outlook on life, that being that you can only truly be happy when you are helping other. While in the Hooverville Tom knocks out a cop, and to prevent Tom from going to jail, Casy sacrifices himself and takes Toms place as the attacker. "You got to git out," he said. "You go down in the willas an' wait. He didn't see me kick 'im, but he seen you stick out your foot." "I don't want to go," Tom said. Casy put his head close. He whispered, "They'll fingerprint you. You broke parole. They'll send you back." (Steinbeck 265) Then when Casy reappears later on, he has aligned himself with the migrants on strike. He has decided to help these people in their plight to obtain fair wages, and because of this, he is killed in cold blood by a cop, who in turn is killed by Tom. "Casy went on, "You don' know what you're a doin'." The heavy man swung the pick handle. Casy dodged down into the swing. The heavy club crashed into the side of his head with a dull crunch of bone, and Casy fell sideways out of the light. "Jesus, George. I think you killed him." (Steinbeck 386) Pretty much, Casy was a well thought out character who reflected Steinbeck's amazing characterization skills, and is one of the two deaths in the story that I actually cared about.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.