Tom Joad, the moral center of the The Grapes of Wrath, abruptly exits the novel in chapter 28. In order to escape possible arrest and to save his family from the effects of his problems, he decides (with the approval of Ma) to do the unthinkable: leave the family. In his conversation with Ma he gives his famous speech which can be interpreted as a moment of spiritual insight, a gesture of solidarity or a call to action. He says (in part), "I'll be ever'where-- wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Where they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there"(419). While not the end of the novel, it is arguably the ending of its most important story arc.
What is the significance of this gesture and the image this scene is describing?
Tom's final conversation in The Grapes Of Wrath is significant because it reveals Tom's true feelings and inner self- to fight for the rights and equality for everyone. After experiencing the monster taking his land, the migration to California, the death of his grandparents, and the death of Casy, Tom finds a new version of himself along this long journey he understands what he needs to do. With all of those things happening on their journey to find a new home and work Steinbeck gives this storyline for Tom like a redemption for him to relieve his friends and family Steinbeck writes. "God, I'm talkin' like Casy. Comes of thinkin about him so much. Seems like I can see him sometimes". This new Tom is not like the old one; Steinbeck changes his character just like Glinda from the story Wicked, I think their stories connect in a very similar way with Tom and Casy, and Glinda and Elphaba in the beginning of both stories both Tom and Glinda don’t care too much for their future good friends but in the end they end caring for everybody. Tom was in prison when the book started and he was all grumpy and didn't really care for anyone that much and was selfish towards others. When the book started to progress Tom's attitude changed, he started to live life like a instead of grumpy and selfish he is now caring and persevering in Tom's last speech he says. "I'll be ever'where-- wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Where they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there". During this final conversation Tom speaks in a different tone than he would have at the beginning, he sounds completed and changed. he sounds completed and changed. Tom would have not done all of this if it was in the beginning but finally out of jail, he can experience what change is like. Throughout the novel Tom has realized there's more to life than himself because he can stand up for his friends and the other people in need.
ReplyDeleteIn the “first” ending of the Grapes of wrath John Steinbeck wants to portray a very deep message. In the scene of the first ending Ma leaves the farm to tell Tom that he isn’t safe anymore as Ruthie told on him by accident. Tom decides to hide and leave the family. This is very hard and scary for Ma because the family starts to break apart. As we see in the coming chapters, Tom’s loss was the start of that. I really want to talk about the conversation and the message behind Tom’s wording.
ReplyDeleteHe tells Ma, “I'll be ever'where-- wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Where they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there"(419). That is not the only thing he tells Ma. He tells her that he wants to honor Jim Casy by living his life like he would have lived his and this perfectly fits the quote above. Jim Casy used to be a preacher and now wanted to leave this behind, but on his journey to California we still see him helping wherever he could. These good duties have something like Christ. Tom also wants to do these good duties as he describes them in his quotes. I believe he wants to do them for the for people in need, but especially because he thinks he owes it to Jim Casy. I think that he is feeling a little bit guilty since he couldn’t protect Casy that night and this motivates his new goals.
Tom leaves his family in order to protect them and keep himself from being discovered, Tom making the decision to leave his family for his family is incredibly significant and almost goes against or flips on its head the idea of the importance of family and family staying together that is seen frequently throughout the book. The importance of family is an idea we see often expressed in the book, especially by Ma and her conversations with Tom and the other family members. The reasoning for Tom’s departure however is motivated at least partially by his urge to protect his family and prevent his actions from causing them harm. Him leaving Ma and the family also allows him the opportunity to stand up for people like them in a way he was previously too scared to do for fear it could cause them harm. Tom is inspired by the former preacher Jim Casy and wants to go off and help. The almost spiritual way Tom talks about his presence is also reminiscent of the way Casy would “preach” in his non-traditional, more spiritual sense. Tom says things like wherever you look I’ll be there and where people are fighting and standing up against injustices that I oppose I’ll be there referring it seems to this human spirit that Casy refers to. It seems that Tom is saying while he might not actually be there in body and mind he will be there in spirit with his fellow people. Tom’s speech before his departure perfectly ties together some of the main ideas of the story, of the importance of family and what that can look like and the ideas of the human spirit shared by Casy.
ReplyDeleteTom’s final speech, and Tom and Ma’s final conversation, exemplifies the idea in The Grapes of Wrath, that humans themselves are holy and together, form one holy spirit. As Tom prepares to leave his family, he tells Ma many of Casy’s ideas about how humans need each other. He says, “A fella ain't got a soul of his own, but on’y a piece of a big one” (419). This idea of strength in community is something Ma has always known. In her sacrifices for the family and her desperation to keep everyone together, she shows that somehow she understands they need each other to feel whole. Tom says that Casy once, “went out into the wilderness to find his own soul, an’ he foun’ he didn’ have no soul that was his’n…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” (418). Humans are meant to help each other and be around each other. Tom wants to go be a union organizer and fight for humanity, and he’s been alone for so long, Tom’s speech may be one of the only reasons Ma allows Tom to leave. She once said, “Use’ ta be the fambly was fust. It ain’t so now. It’s anybody. Worse off we get, the more we got to do” (445). In a way, maybe subconsciously, she understands the human spirit near the end of the book. The worse situations become, the more humanity has to unite to save each other. The more they work together and lean on each other, the more they thrive, and, in a way, the way they stand up for each other is holy. Humans are all connected. If humans are all part of one big soul, it makes it easier to make sacrifices for each other. Tom says, “I’ll be ever’where–wherever you look….I’ll be in the way guys yell when they're mad…I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there” (419). Tom is saying it doesn’t matter if he dies, because he’ll have been fighting for the human spirit, and when he goes, he’ll return to it. Just like Casy, his little piece of soul will go back to the big one, and he’ll be in all of humanity.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the story Grapes of Wrath, readers have followed Tom Joad on his journey from Oklahoma to California during one of the most trying times in American history. The Great Depression uprooted many families, and this book truly shows what it was like to live during this time period. When the book comes to an end, Tom talks to his mother about leaving the family to help create change for the better. He then goes on to say that migrants like him are suffering and that he now has decided to help them out in any way that he can. Instead of backing down and minding his own business, which is what the younger Tom would have probably done, he has chosen to be selfless and to put himself on the line to help complete strangers. I believe that on his journey across the Southwest to reach the promised land of California, Tom witnessed and learned that being selfless and caring is the right thing to do, the human thing to do. The person that Tom has become at the end of this novel is a far cry of the man that readers first encountered at the start of the story. I also think that this ending of the book is the true ending because it shows the reader of all the changes that everybody in the Joad family has experienced. I believe that with Tom, the main character of this story, departing the Joad family ends the story on a hopeful note for the future of both him and the family he is leaving behind.
ReplyDeleteTom’s gesture ultimately closes off one of the larger character developments, where he perpetuates the preaching of his late friend, and becomes a symbol of the book's central point. Tom’s friend, Jim Casy, starts out as a preacher who constantly thinks about religion, and he says “maybe that's the Holy Sperit- the human sperit- the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.” (24) He believes everyone is a part of everyone, and spirituality is in connection with everyone. Tom perpetuates this belief on page 419 when he says, "I'll be ever'where-- wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Where they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there." (419) He is going of Casy’s idea of human spirit connecting everyone, and for Tom, he is connected to his Ma, connected to the struggling people. He initially finds Casy’s constant preachings annoying, but Casy’s words give him a spiritual insight into how he will never be apart from the family, and he will fight for workers' rights. It is with these ideas that Casy decides to become part of a union, to protest against treating workers poorly, and to receive better wages. However, the police always target the leaders of unions to disperse them, and as a result, he is murdered. However, just before his death, he points out to Tom that “the on’y thing you got to look at is that ever’ time they’s a little step fo’ward, she may slip back a little, but she never slips clear back. You can prove that.” (384) He is saying that no matter what happens to change makers, they will always be successful, even though it may not seem that way. The main idea that comes to mind in the context of union workers is that even though one leader may get killed, another will rise in his place, and when that person is Casy, the person who rises turns out to be none other than Tom. His plan upon leaving the family is to fight for people’s rights. Tom’s arc finishes on the sense of community that the Grapes of Wrath frequently establishes. Ma mentions this on page 376 “Learnin’ it all a time, ever’ day. If you’re in trouble or hurt or in need – go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help.” Tom is poor, but that doesn’t stop him from going out of his way to better life for everyone, a far cry from the withdrawn Tom at the start of the novel, and a satisfying end for his character, as the novels sense of community, the ongoing fight for fair treatment, and Casy’s ideas about spirituality that, although he is now dead, live on through Tom, as his character bears a striking resemblance to Casy.
ReplyDeleteIn The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad’s farewell speech is significant because it shows him transforming from an individual person into something larger than himself, which he must do in the face of injustice. When he says he will be “ever’where” migrants are fighting hunger or oppression, he is no longer just a member of the Joad family trying to survive. His physical departure from the story is less of an ending, but more so an expansion. The language in this scene is almost religious, or echoes religious ideas of being ever present. Tom’s transformation also requires him to make a sacrifice (which you could ALSO interpret as being religious in a way). By leaving his family and giving up his chance at a normal life, he accepts that in order to become part of this ‘something larger’, he has to give up his security and individualism.
ReplyDeleteThis speech is spiritual in its language and motifs, but not in an explicitly traditional way. Earlier in the novel, Jim Casy suggests that all people share “one big soul,” and Tom’s speech defines this and makes it concrete. When he says he will be wherever people struggle, he sounds as if he is emulating a spiritual presence, but instead of being grounded in God, he is grounded in the connection with his fellow human beings. His transformation reflects a value of Jim Casy: shared responsibility, the belief that people are linked through their suffering and their efforts to help one another. In this way, Casy lives on through Tom, but in actions instead of solely belief.
Tom Joad’s speech at the end of the book shows how much he has grown and changed since the beginning of the book. Tom starts off just getting out of prison for killing a man and having no guilt, but by the end, he has developed a strong sense of responsibility. His decision to leave his family is a painful sacrifice, but it shows a major turning point for his character. He leaves because he knows his presence could put them in danger, and also chooses to continue fighting for migrant workers and stand up against injustice. This shows that he is no longer thinking only about himself or even just his family, but about a larger community of people struggling with him.
ReplyDeleteWhat Tom does also connects to what Casy believed about the Holy Spirit being the human spirit. Casy often talked about how all people are connected and how true goodness comes from taking care of eachother. When Tom decides to fight for the migrant workers, he becomes a direct example of Casy’s ideas. Tom shows that he understands the deeper meaning behind Casy’s idea, and the idea that individual lives are part of something bigger, showing how he changed from being selfish to devoting himself the the common good.
Tom's final gesture holds significance because not only it completes his character development over the course of the novel, but also serves as a symbol of the book's purpose. In the beginning of the story, Tom was an individualistic man who only cared about the survival of himself and his family. He would go forward with his problems just by bluntly moving forward. He expresses this in Chapter 16, “ How’d I know? I’m jus’ puttin’ one foot in front a the other. I done it at Mac for four years, jus’ marchin’ in cell an’ out cell an’ in mess an’ out mess.” Furthermore, this connects to Tom being at first skeptical and non believant of Jim Casy’s philosophy on life, which was that every human is connected with each other, which is the holy spirit of good that is in everybody. However, while experiencing the extreme hardships, pain and unfairness during his journey, Tom realizes that Casy was right. During every moment of struggle, people around Tom, family and strangers are the ones wiling to help, sometimes sacrificing things dear to themselves. When Casy, whose initials match with Jesus Christ's for a reason sacrifices his life for his beliefs of promoting good for the people around him, a flip switches in Tom, which fulfills his character development. His final gesture culminates all of the change in him. When Ma meets Tom, he tells her he's been Casy and his beliefs for a while, and when she asks him “ what you gonna do?”, he responds with “ What Casy done.” In doing this Tom also serves as a symbol of the books purpose; fighting for the normal folk. In his farewell, Tom becomes the force that drives people for equality. He tells Ma, “I’ll be ever’where–wherever you look….I’ll be in the way guys yell when they're mad…I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there”, being everywhere is Tom being a symbol for the fight for justice and a part of a larger, divine soul.
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