That Shiny Bastard-Jim Casy

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    Thomas harTBenTonsdepicTionof Jim casy, from

    The GrapesofWraTh

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    thAtshim.thAtshinyBAstArD.:JimCAsyAnDChristology

    by stePheN bUlliVaNt

    s

    teiNbeck

    stUdies

    Inaletterdated 19 november , 1948, Steinbeck expresses hisdesire to do one more filmthe life of Christ from the four

    Gospelsadding and subtracting nothing.1 The task would

    have been a formidable one, and it comes as no surprise that his

    wish was never fulfilled. Not only do the gospels provide us with

    four different (sometimes very different) lives of Christ, but toa certain, significant, extent they provide us with four different

    Christs. Mark, for example, depicts a very human JesusaChrist subject to pity and compassion, as well as fear, despair

    and anger. John, on the other hand, emphasizes Jesus divinity:

    his dignified aloofness, his serene foreknowledge. These differing

    portrayals of Jesus are known as christologies.2 Had Steinbeckattempted to bring his wish to fruition he would have been

    faced with the decision of whether to adopt the christology of aparticular evangelist, or, by amalgamating the portrayals of all

    four, create a new christology of his very own. In neither event

    could he rightly be said to be adding and subtracting nothing.

    Steinbecks own take on the greatest story ever told would,

    no doubt, have been an intensely interesting piece of work. Our

    disappointment that his plan was never realized is not, however,

    without its consolations. According to Steinbeck scholars Christ-

    like figures pervade his literary output: Joseph Wayne (ToaGod

    Unknown), Jim Nolan (InDubiousBattle), and Juan Chicoy (TheWaywardBus) to name just three. Among Steinbecks characters,

    however, it is TheGrapes ofWraths Jim Casy in whom theimitatio Christi may most fully be discerned; and it is he who

    shall form the basis of this study.

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    articles Ever since the Christlike depiction of Casy was noted

    by the more perceptive of the books early reviewers,3 literary

    critics have delighted in combing the novel for gospel allusions.Not only (we are told) does Casy share Jesus Christs initials,

    but both become disillusioned with contemporary piety, fall

    foul of the authorities, and die a martyrs death for the supposed

    advancement of a greater good; and it is a death both might have

    avoided. Jesus, we are told, has legions of angels at his disposal

    should he wish to escape (Mt 26.54); Casy (admittedly rather

    less well-equipped) is said to duck down into the swing (my

    italics) which kills himsuggesting, perhaps, a deliberate act.4

    Furthermore, Casy sets out west with twelve of the Joads, one ofwhom (Connie) ends up betraying the group in pursuit of the

    thirty pieces of silver earned daily by the Oklahoma tractor

    drivers he wishes he had joined (on the reckoning that thirty

    silver dimes equals three dollars5). His funeral oration to Grampa

    recalls, albeit in Okie speech, Jesus command to Let the dead

    bury their own dead (Lk 9.60).6 In a neat piece of literary irony,

    Casy himself seems vaguely aware of the parallels between them.

    His grace at Uncles Johns place begins I been thinkin. . . I beenin the hills, thinkin, almost you might say like Jesus went into the

    wilderness to think His way out of a mess of troubles [82-3],7

    and (in perhaps the most striking affinity between the two) he

    twice tells those about to kill him You don know what youre

    a-doin [401], paraphrasing Jesus words of Lk 23.34.

    Thisfor the most part8is all well and good, but by itselfleaves only a superficial understanding of Casys christlike

    nature. As was mentioned above, any attempt to depict Christ

    presupposes a commitment to a certain christology; that is tosay, a certain notion of the Person of Jesus. The same applies

    to Christlike characters also. What christology, then, underlies

    Jim Casy? In order to answer this question, this study shall explore

    parallels between Jim Casy and depictions of similar Christlike

    figures (including some of Christ himself) in both antecedent and

    contemporary American literature. In so doing, we shall attempt

    to trace the christological tradition to which Casy belongs.

    In October 1938, Steinbeck wrote to his agent to request

    that the music and lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic

    be published at the beginning of his new book, TheGrapesof

    Wrath. He explains his reasoning:

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    This is one of the great songs of the world, and

    as you read the book you will realize that the

    words have a special meaning in this book. . . .The title, Battle Hymn of the Republic, in itself

    has a special meaning in the light of this book.9

    The special meaning alluded to is not difficult to divine. The

    second line of the song (He is trampling out the vintage where

    the grapes of wrath are stored) is echoed not just in the books

    title but also in the cautionary note at the end of chapter 25: In

    the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing

    heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. (363). The following

    February, Steinbeck remained adamant that thewhole song shouldbe published as a frontispiece. He writes to his editor and life-long

    friend Pascal Covici: I meant, Pat, to print allallall the verses ofthe Battle Hymn. Theyre all pertinent and theyre all exciting. . . 10

    Such eagerness on the part of the author warrants a little attention.

    The first verse notwithstanding, when read in light of the novel it

    is the final verse of the song which seems most strikingly pertinent:

    In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

    As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

    While God is marching on.

    Against the pious poeticism of the rest of the stanza, the third line

    here is especially noteworthy. That one ought to follow Christ

    even unto death is not, of course, an innovative suggestion

    (indeed, it is a frequent theme of the gospel writers). That thepurpose of so doing is to make men free, however, is. Such

    a concept is wholly foreign to the gospel Jesus, who speaks of

    martyrdom as a means to personal salvation, not corporal

    liberation (e.g. Mk 8.34b-35: For those who want to save theirlife will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for

    the sake of the gospel, will save it.). In interpreting Christian

    discipleship in terms of aligning oneself with the cause of temporal

    liberation, the Battle Hymn adapts Jesus example to the

    contemporary situation. Or, to put it theologically, the concretereality provides the basis for a new christological response.

    The christological tradition expressed by (if not, in fact,

    originating in) the Battle Hymn may be traced in other

    American literature right up to the time of Steinbecks writing

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    articles ofTheGrapesofWrath (and beyond). This notion of Christ as

    a liberator (depicted by Steinbeck in such political militants as

    Jim Casy and InDubiousBattles Jim Nolan) is represented inseveral works which we shall survey here: Alfred Hayes 1925poem I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night. Sarah Cleghorns

    Comrade Jesus published in 1938,11 andmost significantly

    for our present purposestwo songs by Woody Guthrie,

    Jesus Christ (1940) and Christ for President (undated).

    Joe Hill, a Swedish born migr, was a prominent member

    and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW,

    or as they are perhaps better known, the Wobblies) whom he

    joined around 1910 whilst working as a docker in California. Hetraveled widely with the IWW, and by early 1914 found himself in

    Salt Lake City. On January 10, John G. Morrison, a local grocer,

    and his son Arling were shot dead in a robbery by two men masked

    by red bandanas. That same evening Hill, carrying a pistol, was

    found on the doctors steps with a bullet woundone he claimed

    hed suffered following an argument with a friend; a red bandana

    was found in his rooms. Although Hill vehemently denied his

    involvement, he was duly arrested andrefusing to testify at hisown trialwas sentenced to death. He was executed by firing

    squad on November 15, 1915. His last words to his supporters

    are said to have been: Dont mourn for me. Organize!

    Despite the apparently strong case against him, controversy

    surrounds the trial and execution of Joe Hill to this day. With

    suspicions that Hill was framed on account of his political

    activities, he was quickly revered as a martyr to the workers

    cause. Very much in this vein is Hayes 1925 poem I Dreamed I

    Saw Joe Hill Last Night, the second stanza of which goes:

    In Salt Lake, Joe, says I to him,

    him standing by my bed,

    They framed you on a murder charge,

    Says Joe, But I aint dead,

    Says Joe, But I aint dead.

    The poem was set to music in 1936 by Earl Robinson, and wenton to achieve wide currencymost notably in the fifties and

    sixties in the repertoires of Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger and Joan

    Baez.

    Of particular significance to the arguments of the present

    essay are stanzas four and five of the poem/song:

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    And standing there as big as lifeand smiling with his eyes,

    says Joe What they can never kill

    went on to organize,

    went on to organize.

    From San Diego up to Maine,

    in every mine and mill,

    where working-men defend their rights,

    its there you find Joe Hill,its there you find Joe Hill!

    We need not look very far to find support for the claim that Joe

    Hills portrayal here is Christlike. The mention of him being

    framed calls to mind the gospel accounts of Jesus trial before

    the Sanhedrinwhich, according to Luke and John at least,

    was conducted after Pilates cross-examination had found no

    case against him (e.g. Jn 19.38b; cf. Lk 23.13-5). It shouldalso be mentioned that Hills silence at his trial (although not

    mentioned by Hayes) makes his story particularly conducive to

    christologization: Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how

    many accusations they make against you? But he gave no answer,

    not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly

    amazed. (Mt 27.13-14).

    The strongest parallel between I Dreamed I Saw Joe

    Hill Last Night and the gospel record is to be found in Hills

    declaration that he is not, in fact, dead, but may instead be foundwherever working men are organized to defend their rights.

    In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples where two

    or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them (Mt

    18.20), and his last words to them are: And remember, I am

    with you always, to the end of the age (Mt 28.20). Also relevant

    here are the Johannine discourses on the coming of the Holy

    Spirit which, he says, will be with you for ever on the condition

    that you love me, [and] you will keep my commandments (Jn14.15-16). Quite how John conceives the role of the Spirit is a

    point of scholarly dispute, but on a simple level it may be well to

    regard it as being the presence of Jesus when Jesus is absent.12

    Of course, Jesus makes no mention of working men defending

    their rights (as does Hayes Joe Hill), but as we saw with the

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    articles Battle Hymn (and we shall see again in other texts), such a

    reinterpretation of Jesus words is a natural one (regardless of

    strict textual justification) in light of certain circumstances. InJoe Hill (that is, the Joe Hill of the poem/song as opposed to

    what he might have been in reality) we have almost a prototype

    for Steinbecks Casy. Both encourage the workers to organize,

    die a martyrs death, and are depicted as Christlike.

    [As a slight aside, on the subject of Joe Hills promise to be

    wherever men fight for justice, it will be noted that the theme is

    also employed by Steinbeck, although not (at least, not directly)

    this time in his portrayal of Casy. Tom Joad, in his farewell speechto his mother, declares:

    . . . Ill be aroun in the dark. Ill be everwhere

    wherever you look. Wherever theys a fight so hungry

    people can eat, Ill be there. Wherever theys a cop

    beatin up a guy, Ill be there. If Casy knowed, why,

    Ill be in the way guys yell when they mad anIll be

    in the way kids laugh when theyre hungry an when

    they know suppers ready. An when our folks eat thestuff raise an live in the houses they buildwhy, Ill

    be there. See? God, Im talkin like Casy. Comes of

    thinkin about him so much. Seems like I can see him

    sometimes. (436)

    Much work has been done on the Christlike nature of Tom

    himself,13 not to mention his alleged parallels to figures such as

    Moses14 and St Paul. In light of the biblical passages we have been

    considering above, we might well add the Holy Spirit of Johns

    gospel to the list. At Jn 14.26 Jesus tells his disciples: . . . theHoly Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach

    you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

    Needless to say, this is precisely the role Tom takes upon himself

    with regard to the words of Jim Casy.]

    While Hayes Joe Hill takes a well-known political figure

    and christologizes him, Sarah Cleghorns Comrade Jesus

    does precisely the opposite. Here it is Jesus himselfwho is the(unsurprisingly) Christlike labour leader.

    Thanks to Saint Matthew, who had been

    At mass meetings in Palestine,

    We know whose side was spoken for

    When Comrade Jesus had the floor.

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    This mention of Matthew is noteworthy, for it is on words

    recorded by him that Cleghorn primarily bases her christology.

    Prefiguring the Latin American liberationtheologians by almostthree decades, she draws strongly on Mt 25.31-46 and its claimthat whatever you did to the least of these my brothers, you did

    it me:

    For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty

    and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger

    and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me

    clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in

    prison and you visited me. (Mt 25.35-6)

    This suggestion that Christ is to be identifiedand in a sensemore real than the purely figurativewith the poor and afflicted

    is paraphrased in the poem.

    Where sore they toil and hard they lie,

    Among the great unwashed, dwell I.

    The tramp, the convict, I am he;

    Cold-shoulder him, cold-shoulder me.

    The direct equation between Jesus and socialism embodied

    in the poems title is a bold one. It also has itsrather subtler

    parallels inTheGrapesofWrath. Just prior to his murder, Casycries to the approaching vigilantes You fellas don know what

    youre doin. Youre helpin to starve kids. This obvious allusion

    to Jesus own words of Lk 23.34 (Father, forgive them, for they

    do not know what they are doing) is promptly answered with

    Shut up, you red son-of-a-bitch. (401) The importance of this

    exchange is reiterated later in the text as Tom repeats it to Ma, whocomments I wisht Granma [i.e. The most devoutly Christian of

    the Joads15] could a heard. Visser is correct when he comments

    that this is a roundabout but unmistakable association of

    being red with Christ.16 (That said, of course, in Steinbecks

    California a red is any son-of-a-bitch that wants thirty cents

    an hour when were payin twenty-five! [309]). Nor is this the

    only link it is possible to make between Christlike Casy and

    Communist ideology. Indeed, according to some of the booksearliest reviewers TheGrapesofWrath is nothing more than anodious, lying piece of Red Propaganda.17 Moreover, such an

    unsympathetic reading of the text finds a rather more modern

    proponent in the guise of Stephen Railtonhe writes:

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    articles Large numbers of readers could not be expected

    to endorse militant socialism. Instead, Steinbeck

    shrewdly insinuates his revolutionary vision bypresenting it [in the character of Jim Casy] in the

    familiar guise of Christianity.18

    By far the most famous and, from an artistic perspective, the

    most successful (Steinbeck aside) attempts to represent the kind of

    liberation christology we have been tracing occur in the work

    of Woody Guthrie. The relationships (both personal and literary)

    between Guthrie and Steinbeck have been detailed at length by

    H. R. Stoneback, and need not be repeated here.19 As somethingof a preamble to this section, however, it may be worth quoting

    Steinbecks own appraisal of Guthrie:

    Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not

    know he has any other name. He is just a voice and

    a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect

    he is, in a way, that people. Harsh-voiced and nasal,

    his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim,

    there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there isnothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is

    something more important for those who will listen.

    There is the will of a people to endure and fight

    against oppression. I think we call this the American

    Spirit.20

    If Steinbeck admired Guthries work, the feeling was more than

    mutual. In 1940, after having seen Fords TheGrapes of theWrath and finding it to be best cussed pitcher I ever seen,21

    Guthrie set about composing his own version of the Joads story.The result was one of Guthries more famous songs, the seventeen

    verse epic Ballad of Tom Joadof which Steinbeck is reported

    to have said Took me years to doGrapesofWrath and that little

    squirt tells the whole story in just a few stanzas.22

    In Tom Joad, Preacher Casey (as Guthriewho probably

    never read the book23consistently spells it) retains his role as

    the pivotal figure. Indeed, Guthries prcis of Casys ideology isstriking both in its perceptiveness and its brevity:

    I preached for the Lord a mighty long time;

    Preached about the rich and the poor.

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    Us workin folks got to all get together,Cause we aint got a chance any more,

    We aint got a chance anymore.

    Casys character evidently made a strong impression on Guthrie;

    he features in another of his songs from that year, Vigilante

    Man:

    Preacher Casey was just a working man,

    And he said, Unite, all you working men.Killed him in the river, some strange man,

    Was that a vigilante man?

    It was in 1940 also that Guthrie penned yet another of his

    more famous songs, Jesus Christ. The lyrics (of which there

    dusTJackeTofThe VikinGfirsTediTionof

    The GrapesofWraTh.

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    articles are several variants) were set to a traditional tune in the Guthrie

    repertoirethe traditional outlaw ballad Jesse James. This in

    itself is significant in light of the politicized, liberation christologywe have been considering. Jesse James (as so frequently in the

    outlaw genre, e.g. Billy the Kid and Pretty Boy Floyd, not

    to mention the myriad songs about Robin Hood in the British

    tradition) is portrayed in the song as a friend to the poor who

    would never see a man suffer pain. Guthries own, partially

    rewritten, version of the song brings such elements to the fore

    with the addition of such verses as the ones below:

    They was living on a farm in the old Missouri hills,With a silver-haired mother and a home;

    Now the railroad bullies come to chase them off their

    land,

    But they found that Frank and Jesse wouldnt run.

    Then a railroad scab, he went and got a bomb,

    And he throwed it at the door

    And it killed Mrs. James a-sleeping in her bed,So Jesse grabbed a big forty-four.

    Jesse James was a popular song with a familiar melody; the

    statement made by making Jesus its new subject (new wine into

    old wineskins? cf. Mk 2.22) can hardly have gone unnoticed;

    nor, one presumes was it intended to.

    The eponymous hero of Jesus Christ is especially instructive

    to the present study. (We need not be overly concerned that the

    song was written marginally later than TheGrapesofWrathboth works attest to the same broad christological tradition.

    Moreover, it is not too far a stretch of the imagination to speculate

    as to how far Casy may have influenced Guthries Jesus.) Here

    the carpenter (cf. Mk 6.3) is introduced with the words:

    Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land,

    A hard working man and brave.

    He said to the rich Give your goods to the poor.But they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.

    The opening words emphasize the humanity of Christ, and thesubsequent ones in turn cast him as an industrious migrant

    worker, a preacher of economic equality, and a martyr at the

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    hands of a shadowy they. A more Casylike Christ it would be

    hard to imagine.

    Jesus command to the rich to give their goods to the poor,recalling Mk 10.17-22, receives a fuller expression in the sixth

    stanza:

    One day Jesus stopped at a rich mans door.

    What must I do to be saved?

    You must take all your goods and give it to the poor,

    And so they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.

    It is perhaps worth remarking here on the similarity betweenthis verse and a couplet in Cleghorns Comrade Jesus: The

    kingdoms gate is low and small; / The rich can scarce get through

    at all (which seems to draw both on the passage mentioned above

    and Mt 7.14s For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that

    leads to life, and there are few who find it.) The idea of Jesus

    making a preferential option for the poor is a popular one in

    the texts we have been considering. Similarly, Guthrie emphasizes

    the social content of Jesus ministry:

    He went to the sick, he went to the poor;

    And he went to the hungry and the lame;

    Said that the poor would one day win this world,

    And so they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.

    Moreover, Guthries Jesus not only quotes Mt 11.34 (I come not

    to bring you peace, but a sword) in verse three, but also threatens

    in verse eight what, in Steinbecks parlance, might be put as thegrapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for

    the vintage. (363):

    When the love of the poor shall one day turn to hate,

    When the patience of the workers gives away;

    Would be better for you rich if you never had been

    born,

    So they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.

    In the original version of the song quite who this they who

    laid Jesus Christ in his grave are remains obscure. In other

    (later?) versions, however, the mystery is resolved. Aided and

    abetted by a dirty little coward named Judas Iscariot, the blame

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    articles for killing Jesus is lain at the doors ofin turnthe bankers

    and the preachers, the cops and the soldiers, and finally,

    the landlord and the soldiers that he hired. It is interesting tocompare these groups with those groups in TheGrapesofWrathwho conspire against the migrant workersi.e. precisely those

    doing to the Okies now what was done to Jesus two thousand

    years before.

    The songin all its versionsconcludes with a verse making

    it quite plain (as if it was not already!) that Guthrie does not just

    have in mind past events:

    This song was written in New York City,Of rich man, preacher and slave,

    But if Jesus was to preach like He preached in Galilee,

    They would lay Jesus Christ in His grave.

    As far as Guthrie is concerned, of course, the bankers, preachers,

    cops, soldiers and landlords are still very much at large. Helpfully,

    on this theme he provides his own commentary on the song,

    written for an anthology of his entitled HardHittingSongsforHardHitPeople:

    I wrote this song looking out of a rooming house

    window in New York City in the winter of 1940.

    I saw how the poor folks lived and then I saw how

    the rich folks lived and the poor folks down and out

    and cold and hungry, and the rich ones out drinking

    good whiskey and celebrating and wasting handfulls

    of money at gambling and women, and I got tothinking about what Jesus said and what if He was

    to walk into New York City and preach like He used

    to. Theyd lock Him back in jail as sure as youre

    reading this. Even as youve done it unto the least

    of these little ones, you have done it to me.24

    Jesus Christ is not Guthries only song evincing a christology

    of the kind with which we are concerned. In the archives of theWoody Guthrie Foundation, New York, is a manuscript entitled

    Christ for President. Sadly, neither this manuscript nor the

    typed copies with it are dated; more sadly, no tune for the song

    survives. Again, Jesus blue-collar credentials are stressedmost

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    notably with him being referred to as the carpenter at several

    points during the song, as here:

    The only way we could ever beat

    These crooked politician men,

    Is to cast the money changers out of the temple;

    Put the carpenter in.

    Fulminating against corrupt politicians is, of course, a hallmark

    of Guthries output (not that he is averse to giving credit where

    credits due, cf. 1963s Dear Mrs Roosevelt). Here Guthries

    proposed solution would ensure a job and a pension for youngand old and a reversal of the current situation in which:

    Every year we waste enough,

    To feed the ones who starve.

    We build our civilization up,

    And we shoot it down with wars.

    Guthries modest proposal is not, of course, wholly serious.Rather, he puts Christs example up as a mirror against which to

    judge contemporary piety and politics (as indeed do the gospel

    writers). Steinbeck employs a similar device. From the outset

    of the novel Casy is portrayed as one who has rejected popular

    religious practice. Aside from several hints at the beginning, the

    readers full understanding of this brand of Christianity comes

    from hints and asides which occur frequently throughout the rest

    of the book. ChristlikeCasy could scarcely be more at variance

    with, for example, the self-confessed lamb-blood ChristianLisbeth Sandry and the preachers she so admires: Went to a

    meetin in Weedpatch las night. Know what the preacher says?

    He says, Theys wicketness in that camp. He says, The poor is

    tryin to be rich. (332).

    As a postscript to this section it is worth noting that the

    kind of christology with which we have concerned ourselves

    does not end with the work of Guthrie and Steinbeck. It remainsa frequent theme in the folk tradition, as represented by songs

    from artists so diverse as Ewan MacColl (The Ballad of the

    Carpenter; 1960), Jackson Browne (Rebel Jesus; 1991), and

    Steve Earle (Christmas in Washington; 1997). This latter song

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    articles is of particular interestsuggesting as it does Jesus return as a

    side-kick to Woody Guthrie:

    So come back Woody Guthrie,

    Come back to us now.

    Tear your eyes from paradise,

    And rise again somehow.

    If you run into Jesus,

    Maybe he can help you out.

    Come back Woody Guthrie to us now.

    ___________________

    The purpose of this study, as stated at the close of the

    introduction, was to attempt to trace the christologicaltradition to which Jim Casy belongs. This has now, I hope,largely been achieved. Hitherto, the quest for literary antecedents

    and parallels for Steinbecks portrayal of Casy has largely been

    confined to trawling through the gospels. This is, no doubt, a

    fruitful exercisebut it is scarcely exhaustive. What I have tried

    to do in this essay is to establish Casys position in a christologicaltradition; a tradition stretching from the evangelists themselves,via the battlefields of the Civil War, to writers such as Cleghorn,Hayes and Guthrieand beyond.

    This realization is not, it is true, a wholly new one. Already

    in the 1960s Edwin Moseley noted parallels between Casy and

    a particular sort of Christ figure of the thirtiesi.e. the sort

    depicted in Guthries Jesus Christ. Moseley, however, errs in

    suggesting such a narrow time-frame, as (surely) he also does in

    characterizing this christology as merely presenting in the lastanalysis a kind of melodramatic, if moving, hero who represents

    the potential goodness in man.25 Far nearer the mark was Louis

    Owens, writing in 1989:

    Christ, it must be remembered, came as a herald of

    a new consciousness, as a leader of the oppressed

    masses, and as a sacrificial figure whose death would

    offer man a new beginning and a second chance. Jim

    Casy, with his eye-catching initials, is such a Christfigure in this novel.26

    28

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    1

    To Bo Beskow, Pacific Grove, 19 November, 1948reprinted inE. Steinbeck & R. Wallstan (eds.), John Steinbeck:ALife inLetters

    [hereafter SLL] (New York: Penguin, 2001) 341-44, at 343.2 Christology being, in the words of eminent Catholic theologian Karl

    Rahner: That part of theology which deals with Jesus Christ, and in a

    strict sense with his Person. . . See K. Rahner & H. Vorgrimler, Concise

    TheologicalDictionary (Burns & Oates, 1983) 70.3 Malcolm Cowley, for example, remarks on Casys transformation into

    a Christ-like labour leader. See American Tragedy, NewRepublic

    98 (3 May 1939): 382-3 (reprinted in J. R. McElrath, J. S. Crisler, & S.

    Shillinglaw (eds.),JohnSteinbeck:TheContemporaryReviews [hereafter

    TCR] (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996) 166-7. Similarly, Charles Lee

    makes fleeting reference to Christ-like Casy in TheGrapesofWrath:

    The Tragedy of the American Sharecropper, BostonHerald (22 April

    1939, Sec. A, p. 7), printed in B. A. Heavilin, ed., TheCriticalResponse

    toJohnSteinbecksTheGrapesofWrath [hereafter Heavilin] (Westport,CT: Greenwood Press, 2000) 47-9, at 47).4 An interpretation suggested (tentatively) by C. Kocela (A Postmodern

    Steinbeck, or Rose of Sharon Meets Oedipa Maas, in Heavilin, 247-67,

    at 257).5 J. Fontenrose, The Grapes of Wrath, in Heavilin, 71-86, at 82.6 Ibid., 82.7 Page references (given in square brackets) are to the 1967 Viking edition

    ofTheGrapesofWrath. All Biblical quotations (excepting those quoted

    from other authors) are from the NRSV translation.8 For example, the attempt to wrest meaning from the fact that among

    the twelve Joads are two men named Thomas (cf. Fontenrose, 82-3).

    The synoptists concur on there being only one Thomas among Jesus

    entourage (Mt 10.2-4; Mk 3.16-19; Lk 6.14-16), although according to

    John the Twelve did include two men named Judas (see Jn 14.22). Also,

    both Levant and Visser remark on how Casy accepts his martyrdom

    with a phrase that recalls Christs last words. The phrase which they

    do in fact recall (Lk 23.34) is not, however, Jesus lastcf. H. Levant,

    TheNovelsofJohnSteinbeck (Columbia : University of Missouri Press,

    29

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    articles 1974), 103; N. Visser, Audience and Closure in TheGrapesofWrath,

    in Heavilin, 201-19, at 209.9

    To Elizabeth Otis, Los Gatos, 1938, reprinted in SLL, p. 173.10 SLL, p. 175.11 It is not certain when the poem was written. It was, however, published

    as part of a 1938 collection entitledANewAnthologyofModernPoetry ,

    edited by Selden Rodman. The book is now, it seems, difficult to find.12 R. E. Brown, The Paraclete in the Fourth Gospel, NewTestament

    Studies 13 (1966-7), p. 128.13 E.g. Fontenrose, p. 84; L. Owens, TheGrapesofWrath:Troubleinthe

    PromisedLand (New York: Twayne 1989) 41.14 Fontenrose, pp. 80-1.15 S. Railton, Pilgrims Politics: Steinbecks Art of Conversion, in D.

    Wyatt (ed.),NewEssaysonTheGrapesofWrath (New York: Cambridge

    UP, 1990) 27-46, at 38.16 Visser, p. 209.17 A. D. Spearman, Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath Branded as Red

    Propaganda by Father A. D. Spearman, San FranciscoExaminer, 4June 1939, Section 1, p. 12 (reprinted in TCR, p. 171); see also Grapes

    of Wrath,Colliers 104, 2 September 1939, p. 53 (TCR, pp. 174-5).18 Railton, p. 40.19 H. R. Stoneback, Rough People. . . Are the Best Singers: Woody

    Guthrie, John Steinbeck, and Folksong, in D. R. Noble (ed.), The

    SteinbeckQuestion (Troy, N.Y.: Whitston Pub. Co., 1993) 143-70, at

    146.

    20 In S. Shillinglaw & J. J. Benson (eds.),OfMenandTheirMaking

    (London: Allen Lane, 2002) 225-6.21 In one of his columns for PeoplesWorldhelpfully reprinted in Woody

    Sez (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1975) 133.22 Reported in E. Robbin, Woody Guthrie andMe (Berkeley, CA :

    Lancaster-Miller Publishers, 1979). The claim, however, does not go

    uncontestedcf. Stoneback, pp. 158-9.23

    Pete Seeger recalls a conversation he had with Guthrie: I asked himif he had read the book and he said, No, but I saw the movie. Good

    movie see P. Seeger, TheIncompleatFolksinger, New York: Simon

    and Schuster, 1972) 44.

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    24 A. Lomax & P. Seeger (eds.), HardHittingSongsforHardHitPeople,

    Oak Publications 1967.25

    E. Moseley, Christ as the Brother of Man, in A. M. Donohue (ed.),ACasebookonTheGrapesofWrath (New York: Crowell, 1968) at

    216-17.26 L. Owens, p. 40.

    StephenbullIvantis a doctoral student in Theology at Oxford University.

    Aside from his current research (the salvation of atheists in modern

    Catholic theology) he is particularly interested in the works of Steinbeck,

    Hemingway and Dostoevsky. He can be contacted at: stephen.bullivant@

    chch.ox.ac.uk.