Question+A


 * A.) Jim Casey is sometimes called a “Christ Figure.” Think about the initials of his name, his **** time in the wilderness, his feelings for the people, and his maturity as a philosopher while in **** jail (“Maybe all men got one big soul ever’ body’s a part of”), and his acts of sacrifice and **** martyrdom. Explain how these help create such a symbol of Casey. Why do you think **** Steinbeck may have portrayed him this way? **

== Jim Casey is sometimes called a “Christ Figure.” Think about the initials of his name, his time in the wilderness, his feelings for the people, and his maturity as a philosopher while in jail (“Maybe all men got one big soul ever’ body’s a part of”), and his acts of sacrifice and martyrdom. Explain how these help create such a symbol of Casey. Why do you think Steinbeck may have portrayed him this way? == == Throughout the story, Jim Casy develops as a person and the reader sees him adjust as more related to Christ. He has humility and kindness for others and believing others should be as a whole as Christ did. Also, he develops as a philosopher as he is serving his time in jail. == == One event that occurs that hints to the reader that Casy is a christlike figure is when he’s with his family on the road. Gramma wants him to pray for the food they’re eating but he says he isn’t a preacher anymore but she urges him to anyway. Although he’s praying like any other Catholic would, he prays for man and says how man is holy within itself. == == He then explains how he doesn’t remember how to say grace how he used to, but still gives thanks for the food and the meal that they’ve been given. The family waits for him to say "Amen" until they lift their heads. ==
 * == “I got thinkin’ how we was holy when we was one thing, an’ mankin’ was holy when it was one thing. An’ it on’y got unholy when we mis’able little fella got the bit in his teeth an’ run off his own way, kickin’ an’ draggin’ an’ fightin’.”(81). ==

== As they continue to make their long journey to California they approach a man who tells them there is no work in California from what the handbills have told them. It then starts to worry Pa, but Casy believes that they will have a better experience than what the man did, and that there’s hope for them out there to come all this way. ==
 * == “They's stuff goin' on that the folks doin' it don't know nothin' about—yet. They's gonna come somepin outa all these folks goin' wes'—outa all their farms lef' lonely. They's comin' a thing that's gonna change the whole country."(174). ==

This brings somewhat a relief to the family because Casy has been helping them throughout the journey so he has developed some sort of trust from them.
== As the Joads reach California they encounter these deputies that give them a hard time. The reason he goes to jail is because him and Tom knock one of them out of consciousness and they realize one of them has to go to jail. Casy volunteers for Tom and the others because he knows that Tom escaped parole before, in Oklahoma. == == Casy is shown as a leader when he is trying to help the other farmers suffering from the Hooverville camps and is represented as a Christ figure here because he cares for the people and believe they need to be as a whole to be great and work together to get out of their suffering. ==
 * 1) == How does Casy’s attitude here provide hope for the family on the way to California? ==
 * 1) == How do you think this act shows that he is like a Christ figure? ==
 * == “Somebody got to take the blame. I got no kids. They’ll jus’ put me in jail, an’ I ain’t doin’ nothin’ but set aroun’.”(265). ==
 * == “We got there an’ they says they’re payin’ two an’ a half cents. A fella can’t even eat on that, an’ if he got kids—So we says we won’t take it. So they druv us off. An’ all the cops in the worl’ come down on us.” (383). ==

Christ had made.
== This event changes the lives of Tom, making him feel he has to take on the responsibility of his former friend and spread what he has learned from Jim to everyone else, and the life of Rose of Sharon, by making her stronger and being able to uphold the awful occurrences that happen to her such as the death of her baby. ==
 * 1) == What do you think would’ve happened to the people of the strike, Tom, Rose of Sharon or the family members, if Casy wasn’t martyred? Do you think it would’ve changed Tom’s perspective of carrying out Casy’s work? How? ==
 * == In “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” it explains “intertextuality” which is when authors bring in references from other texts into their own to deepen the readers appreciation and experience to bring multiple layers of the text forward to open the readers view. For example, after Casy has died and Tom realizes he needs to teach Casy’s philosophy he brings in the bible references that Jim has given him . “Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.” In the back of the book it says how this paraphrase from Tom is from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. It shows how much Tom has learned from Jim and his philosophy and with his death realizes he needs to carry on his work. ==
 * 1) == Why do you think that Steinbeck made Jim Casy’s initials as J.C.? Do you think he did it to emphasize that he is a Christ figure? ==