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In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck writes about the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the anguishing journey a family endures while trying to travel cross-country. The Great Depression was the cruelest financial decline in the account of the industrialized world from 1929. In contrast, the Dust Bowl was the time in history where severe dust blizzards occurred and deeply impaired the ecosystem of American lands. Similarly, The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 and tells the journey of one Oklahoma farm family. The Joads were kicked out of their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. While Steinbeck writes profoundly and emotionally about the political problem of this time and of the struggling family, many readers find characteristics of spiritual evidence. Specifically, Martin Shockley contributes many of the details demonstrated in The Grapes of Wrath with Christian symbolism; these details are nothing more than mere coincidences and are attributes of natural human behavior and science.
Shockley relates the mental exercise of meditation expressed by Jim Casy to the religious figure, Jesus Christ. Meditation is the technique practiced to pass a person's awareness and experience essential nature. Jim Casy’s character is shown as an individual who changes careers after finding discomfort and dissatisfaction in his life. This type of behavior is common among the human population. Individuals become unsatisfied with their routine for a change. Similarly, Jim Casy is seeking a change in his everyday routine. Preaching was his previous line of work; there was ineffective management and detriment to his success. This type of feeling is mutual among individuals and there is no specific correlation with Jesus Christ. Furthermore, meditation has been known to bring people peace, happiness, and bliss. Therefore, by going out into the wilderness and experiencing peace and quiet Jim Casy is practicing introspection. He is seeking to acquire a better understanding of what he wants out of life.
Similarly, Shockley finds a connection between Casy and Christ as they both share the same initials of JC. The human mind is a complex and intelligent organ that works in many ways. Science has demonstrated the brain has the ability to make physical and mental connections and produce a higher and more creative way to function. From a very young age, children have been trained to make connections by grouping information and acknowledging how they symbolize or relate to one another. So, the link between the two characters due to their initials is viewed as a mere coincidence as well as a mind connection. Shockley is joining the information he already knows about Jesus Christ and making a creative link with this figure of literature. Furthermore, the image Steinbeck portrays of Casy throughout the story represents some similarities to those descriptions illustrated of Christ in the Bible. Shockley’s thoughts have influenced his association between the two characters. After all, the mind is inherent, a realm to which everyone has his or her own immediate introspective access, this could justify Shockley’s rationale.
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