I see that this forum is here for essays, among other things. I figured "what the hell" and decided to post my essay on The Grapes of Wrath just to get some feedback. So enjoy, and if you havn't read the book, I highly recommend it. Thanks all.
Here's the prompt I was given:
Define the word "archetype." Do you find that Tom Joad is an
archetype for the union organizer seeking justice? Or - do you find
Casy to be an archetype of a self-sacrificing martyr? Trace the
actions and behavior of one of these characters and see if you find any
patterns that you might characterize as archetypal. You do not need
to summarize all that happens to the character; instead, select those
aspects of his behavior that seem significant and that suggest the
archetypal pattern.
Jim Casey: The MartyrThe Grapes of Wrath, By John Steinbeck, is one of America’s most well known classics. The story tells the tale of the Joad family’s escape from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma to conditions not much better, if at all, in the so called promise land of California. When looking at the characters of The Grapes of Wrath, it is easy to see that a few of them fall into well defined archetypes; an archetype being an idealized model. Ma Joad can easily be described as the “earth mother”; Tom Joad, the “seeker”; and Jim Casey, the “martyr.” Not only is Jim Casey the “martyr”, but America’s most well known martyr, Jesus Christ.
Jim Casey and Jesus Christ have the same initials. Steinbeck did not do this on accident. Just to hammer it in, though, Steinbeck had the character allude to being Christ-like, ”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" (109). To top it off, Casey died for the plight of his people, the strikers, just as Christ died for the plight of his people, the Jews. This is not to say that Steinbeck was preaching the doctrine of Christianity in his work, in fact, far from. Christ represents a transition from Judaism to something else; a something else that became Christianity. Just as Casey, a former Christian preacher, represents a transition from Christianity to something else.
That “something else” is most certainly socialism. Socialism in The Grapes of Wrath is represented by the government camp the Joads move to in the middle of the story. Socialism is a concept created by Karl Marx, and Marx is quoted saying, “religion is the opiate of the people.” Steinbeck adds this “opiate” to the government camp in the form of a religious minority dead set against the camps one outlet of enjoyment, the Saturday night dance. This religious minority was included, to show, while Casey emulates Christ, The Grapes of Wrath is not preaching Christianity. What it is “preaching,” is socialism, and, even more so, the evils of capitalism, a system not present in the government camp.
If there is one dominate theme in The Grapes of Wrath, it is: capitalism is evil. It is the capitalist society that drives the Joads from their farm; it is the capitalist society that creates the heinous conditions of the Hoovervilles; and it is the capitalist society that keeps the dust bowl migrants homeless and starving. America, arguably, is a Christian nation, and even more so during the time period in which The Grapes of Wrath was released. What better way could there have been for Steinbeck to drive his theme home than by having capitalism kill the representation of Jesus Christ. Casey did not even get a public execution, like Christ. Casey was killed in the black of the night with a club. Steinbeck’s message is clear: Capitalism kills everything, even Jesus Christ.
Jim Casey is one of the more beloved characters in The Grapes of Wrath. This is typical of the martyr archetype, and certainly typical of the martyr he emulates, Jesus Christ. To rewrite the Grapes of Wrath and have Jim Casey’s death become a driving force of social change would be wrong. Steinbeck wanted to convey to people that capitalism a horrible scourge on society and did so by killing Jesus Christ on a dark night in the middle of nowhere.
