An interesting thought just struck me. If organized religion divides humanity, then what does that mean about our good fellow JC? (John Casy, aka: Jesus Christ) Well, we can see when we begin the novel that he is a preacher, and not a terribly good one. You could say that his soul was divided, in much the same way that religion divides humanity so too does the religion of one man divide him. Over the course of the book Jim becomes disillusioned and lost, eventually he finds himself and leads and unifies the migrant workers.
Now is the question, was this intentional?
Was Steinbeck trying to tell us that if religion could just change, then instead of being a dividing force it could be unifying? Granted that Jim underwent a pretty radical change, but it was also a parallel to Jesus' own life. Maybe he means that Jesus was always a unifying force, but after he died(permenantly), his image became less and less powerful?
This is a really interesting line for me, I'm gonna look up Steinbeck's past for my next post and see if I can figure anything out from that.
PS: Sorry for the delay, had a crazy busy weekend. Regionals on friday, model UN saturday and Sunday as well as my tutoring job on sunday.
PPS: I had planned on refuting some of Sam's preamble but I'm way too tired now, 'night all.
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1 comment:
It does almost seem that Jim Casy's evolution as a religious character (from a "traditional religious figure to a man of reason with religious roots) demonstrates the potential for religion to unite people
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