Ma Joad is the backbone of the Joad family. When things were really bad the family turned to her and not to Pa. The family gauged their own emotions by looking at her reaction. She knew that if she faltered then the whole family would collapse. She is always concerned for the

The preacher, Jim Casy, can be seen as a modern day Christ figure, except for without the Christian Doctrine. The initials of his name, J.C., are the same as Jesus Christ. When he is saying grace in chapter eight, he compares himself to Jesus: "I been in the hills, thinkin', almost you might say like Jesus wen into the wilderness to think His way out of troubles."(pg 70-71) Casy believed in the Emersonian Over-Soul, that we are all have a small part of a larger soul, and everybody is holy. As Tom said, "one time he went out in the wilderness to find his soul, an' he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul."(pg 373) He just wants to be around people because he sees everybody as being holy. He also thinks that people working in cooperati

Some common words found in the essay are:
Emersonian Over-Soul, Ma Joad, Grapes Wrath, Jesus Christ, Jim Casy, Christian Doctrine, family collapse, land owners, ma joad, christ saying, pa family, jim casy,
Approximate Word count = 506
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)