Above all it showed everyone that these “damn Okies” were all simply men, women, and children, no different from anyone else, just poorer (Frohock 133). They were human beings with feelings and not the uncivilized beasts they were portrayed as at the time. John Steinbeck carefully molded his story The Grapes of Wrath to encompass many themes and ideas. To help enforce his message Steinbeck included several Biblical allusions. John Steinbeck uses Biblical allusions to create the theme that strength to survive comes from faith by using characters and events. Steinbeck creates the theme of the novel by alluding the characters in his story to characters in the Bible. Jim Casy is an allusion to Jesus Christ. They have the same initials and live their lives as examples of their beliefs: Jesus to the world as Casy is to Tom (Rombold 149). Casy even compares himself to Christ when he says, “I got tired like Him, an’ I got mixed up like Him, an’ I went into the wilderness like Him, without no campin’ stuff” (105). In the first half of the book Casy is thinking and forming his ideas. He changes from a thinker to a man of action when he sacrifices himself for Tom (Slade 242). When in prison Casy sees the advantage of organizing people to achieve a common goal. When Casy tried to put his ideas into action he, like Christ, aroused the antagonism of the people in authority and was brutally killed. He died, like Christ saying to his crucifiers, “You don’ know what you’re a-doin’” (495). Also Rose of Sharon represents a Biblical allusion towards the end of the novel. After she gives birth to her stillborn child, she gives life to a starving man by breast-feeding him. Her sacrifice suggests the notion of rebirth through Christ’s physical body, which is symbolized in the ritual of communion (Pratt 326). When she tells the man to drink her milk she alludes to the Last Supper whe...
