former minister, is troubled by the guilty conscious he receives when he would lay in the grass with a particular female pupil of his after Sunday class. He questions how the act could be such a sin if only the holiest females seem to partake in such an activity. Throughout the novel, Jim is met by certain situations which aid is his continuous enlightenment. Jim abandons his holy ways to realize that it is not the abstract aspects of life that matter as much as the actions of living humans. He rejects the idea of surrounding himself in God's soul, but the souls of human beings, each whom combined create a much holier soul. Jim is so intent on realizing this, that even when standing next to the dying Mrs. Wilson, resists her wish for his prayers. He simply is trying to separate himself from the idea of God as much as possible, which was further expressed when he was forced by the Joad's to say something upon Grandpa's death. Jim, in sticking to his new philosophy of recognizing the importance of life over death represents these feelings in his words for Grandpa. "All that lives is holy, Grandpa is dead, and he doesn't need much said." (Steinbeck 184) Jim Casey pursued these ideals right to his death as he was in the process of attempting to organize the migrant workers to unite in numbers to gain power. There are many aspects of this book which, combined, make it the great novel it proved to be. Steinbeck's use of the intermittent narrative chapters give the reader a greater idea of what is going on, all of while pulling the entire picture of the novel together. Each little chapter, in its own sense, teaches, or makes the reader further aware of an aspect that might not normally be interpreted, or realized through the regular chapters alone which Steinbeck uses as a tool to further develop and express his ideas. For example, chapter 3 expresses the struggle of a turtle trying to get across the highway. An ignorant reader might take the...
