Blog 21

In Chapter four Tom pick up the symbolic turtle and takes it on the journey with him(Steinbeck 43). Shortly after, Tom runs into an old man sitting on the side of the road. This man is Jim Casey. Jim Casey was the preacher at the church when Tom Joad was a young boy. The childhood church preacher informs Tom that he has stopped preaching. He also tells him about his habits he had commited after prayers with taking girls out to the grass. He was basically a sexual predator.

It is very ironic that the preacher was actually not that great of a person. It actually really shows that people that others look up to, like a preacher, a teacher, a parent, or a celebrity, might actually be an awful person. It is also ironic that Tom Joad runs into the old preacher at the time that he does. Tom is probably feeling like an awful person just being released from jail for manslaughter and then he runs into someone who everyone thought was very religious and godly who was committing sexual creepy things with women, which is a sin in god's eyes.

Personally I think that Jim Casey is a creepy, very odd guy. He is a character that kind of rubs me the wrong way. He makes a point saying that he has redifined the concept of holiness. He says that holiness is living here on earth not being amongst the clouds with god. Also, I personally do not agree with this at all. I strongly believe in God and think it is much more holy in heaven than here on earth. He was basically a messed up preacher and i feel that he has made that point because he failed in what god had as a mission for Jim Casey. He was not a very good person obviously, but I am glad Tom Joad met him because Tom Joad was probably feeling down and I do like Tom Joad and I like that someone made him feel better about himself, because personally if i talked to a mess up failure preacher who tells me of some awful things he did, I know i would feel better about my life.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print.