He progressively learns more. When he was in jail (for hitting a police officer for Tom as a sacrifice for the family) he found that, “ what made’em bad (the men in jail) was they needed stuff... It’s need that makes the trouble.” (pg. 521, STEINBECK) Socialist reforms that were implemented by the government or by the business, like a day’s wage for a day’s work, regulation of the economy rather than laizze faire, were being shown to the people who read this novel. When the need ended, so did the trouble.
Casy decides to end the need that he keeps talking about by holding a strike with his fellow “disciples” at a peach orchard where picking was taking place for five cents a bucket. They are only picking for five because there was a strike. After the strike is abruptly ended, the price goes to two and a half cents a bucket. The strike portrays every aspect of socialism. Basically, a strike is a main part of socialism due to the fact that socialism calls for a rise to unity, and that’s what a strike does. Steinbeck shows the repression ( the police scattered the strikers, pg. 523) in order to wreck their plans. People fear things they don’t know; thus Casy and his followers were found to be communists because people didn’t understand the concept they were portraying. It was something that was lightly practiced in America and not well understood.
Casy sacrificed himself for the sake of having faith in people’s abilities to work together and achieve their goals. When Casy died, it was a physical and literal attack on socialism. Steinbeck wanted to shows that even when the leader is killed or when people think they’ve ended a movement, they haven’t. Someone or something will keep the movement and the idea of change moving. The best example of this is when Uncle John sends the blue, dead baby in a box down the river to vividly show what is happening to his people and when Tom fights back the only way he knows how, he kills the cop in revenge. Casy said, “ the only thing you got to look at is that every time they’s a little step foward, she may slip back but she never slips clear back.... And that means there ain’t no waste even if it seemed like there was.” (pg. 525, STEINBECK) The movement would always be there, Casy’s death was a little step back.
Who could carry on this heavy idea to the next generation? How could it transcend through history? The only fitting choice would be Tom Joad, his “first disciple”. Where Casy ends Tom begins. Tom is a smart man. He knows a righteous cause from an unrighteous one. Casy’s death seems to be a turning point for Tom. The intense pictures of Casy’s death (pg. 533, STEINBECK) seemed to reek havoc on Tom’s mind. He had stood up for Casy many times, he backed up his word (pg. 174, STEINBECK). He was becoming like Casy without even knowing it. They have both been to jail and knows what man’s limits are. They both know the pain of the depression. He is now understanding Casy’s message. Steinbeck goes so far to show us that Tom will bear the cross of Casy, by using a bible passage. The passage talks about man helping man, how man is useless without one another, and when one falls the rest must battle on. (pg. 570, STEINBECK) Tom finds, when he goes into hiding at the cotton fields, that he doesn’t like what he sees. He goes on to talk to his mother about this and how he hates the way the people are forced to live. He points out to her that he sees what Casy was saying all along. Tom figures that if his soul is apart of everyone’s soul then,” it don’t matter. Then I’ll be all around in the dark. I’ll be everywhere, where ever you look. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin up a guy, I’ll be there...” ( pg. 572, STEINBECK) Tom Joad will indeed carry on the idea of socialism if he keeps thinking like that.
With the idea of socialism transcending in mind, there are two chapters where Steinbeck leaves with his readers a little insight, a call to socialism and to show the injustices that did occur. These two chapters are like little predictions by Steinbeck about what will happen to end the Depression and for us to reflect upon.
Chapter fourteen is an explicit political statement concerning the migration to the west coast.(www.gradesaver.com/ ClassicNotes) This chapter shows the growing labor unity of man. (pg. 204, STEINBECK) Steinbeck also presents the fact that the owners fear changes that threaten their interests. But what Steinbeck makes clear is that by owners repossessing their land, they created their own problem. They created the hunger that afflicts them in the end. (www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes)
Steinbeck wants to show the rights of man in chapter fourteen. A man has a right to integrity and dignity. A man has a right to help his family. Steinbeck tells us that a man can improve, because a man is what he creates and what he does. (www.gradesaver.com/ ClassicNotes) This is shown through the men in the book trying to improve themselves by trying to get jobs. But the fact is they can’t get jobs, they can’t improve. They are now basically seen by the government and the big businesses as something like livestock. (pg) Steinbeck goes even farther to say that a farmer wouldn’t leave his good horse out in the field in the rain or over work him because they are worth something. By Steinbeck making this statement, we can concluded that people viewed these men and women as nothing when in reality they were as real as the sun rising each morning. According to Steinbeck, mankind is distinguished because men’s actions go beyond oneself. (www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes) This is illustrated in the Joad’s helping the Wilson’s and the Wainwrights. When the smallest people work together they can create something powerful. As they begin to conform to that socialist idea, their lives get better and better. The barrier to their distinguished characters is the big business. They are a threat to the people’s good will toward one another. Steinbeck points out that when the business lowers the price for the hungriest man and when they finally break one man’s spirit, they can prevent the growing possibility that the oppressed will revolt. Steinbeck would most likely say, instead of prevent, prolong. He believes that they can’t stop a revolution, especially if it’s socially motivated.
In chapter nineteen Steinbeck shows us the Marxist Leninist type idea, where capitalists and imperialism create it’s own demise through success. (www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes) To do this, he uses a few examples. First he shows us the hatred of the okies once again. (pg. 318, STEINBECK) This reinforces the idea of a mass laizze fair economy and how business leaders’ success is taking hold of the American people’s compassion. It’s almost saying that they’ve been brainwashed; who wouldn’t be when each individual is trying to get ahead. They world they live in is not a socialistic community nor is it transcendentalists. Eventually, Steinbeck says, people will mutiny when only a few have wealth and they have little or nothing. (www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes) Steinbeck shows us these people’s hardship by comparing them to the blacks in the south. (pg. 322, STEINBECK) They are discriminated, repressed and in due time they will rise up in their own civil rights movements. He also compares them to sinners; “ like a penitent picker”. (pg. 317, STEINBECK) They don’t need to be forgiven, for they have done nothing wrong. He uses this to shows that all these people are guilty of hunger and dignity. They just want to be human beings. Lastly, he compares them to foreigners. (pg. 321, STEINBECK) During this era, foreigners were greatly hated. The police saw them as dirty and corrupting their cities. The police say periodically through out this book that resemble this quote: “ got to keep these people down or they’ll run the country over.” ( pg. 321, STEINBECK) Of course they will! When they’re cold enough, hungry enough, when a gun doesn’t scare them because “a gun is an extension of themselves, when they aren’t scared because they know a greater fear” (pg. 322, STEINBECK), of course they will cry for help and join in arms. They will become socialists and demand the money from the government to help them live. And the government will pay because without them picking, the California farm industry is sunk.
Steinbeck wants us to see that there was progress by the government. The government implemented one helpful reform: the camp where the Joad’s stayed about three months living. This is the symbol of change that is sure to come. Steinbeck includes it show us that maybe the government does care and that they do support the same socialist movements that the people do. It also shows that he is pro-American. This camp shows that he believes that out democratic government works. That the government would support a camp that provides clean water, safety, lets people make their own decisions, provided toilets, a store and washrooms, helped give these people a glimmer of hope. Steinbeck’s point with the government camp was also that it is possible for everyone to live in a communal society in which everyone has an equal share and equal voice. (www.gradesaver.com/ ClassicNotes) It’s not a perfect place ( in example Lisbeth Sandry’s unwelcome advice to Roseasharon), but it’s a place where the Joads’s can live with respect. It’s a place where a man can have dignity and once again be distinguished.
The camp is also a return to normality. (www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes) Pa somewhat returns to the head of the family. He starts making more decisions. Ma gets time to think. The camp gives her the chance for introspection. She can clean her family up, think about all the hard parts of the trip (i.e. grandma and grandpa’s death and Noah leaving). Also, Ruthie and Winfield get to play with other kids, they get to be kids. Al gets to be a teenager, not a responsible driver. He can now look for girls and etc. But when the family leaves the camp, due to no work, the family falls apart. The normality. The socialism at the camp is what made most of them happy and kept them together. But Ma Joad knew better. She shows that socialism has to be widespread, it can’t just be in one spot. It has to take over everything and be thought by everyone.
When the normality ends, the requirement of socialism in society becomes important again. Through out the novel, Steinbeck tries to give us a clear picture of what is needed to stop all the suffering that was going on in our nation. Tom Joad, Jim Casy, the camp and a couple chapters teach the future readers that we can make a difference in people’s lives. We have made a difference. Today socialism is alive and working well for America.
