Blog #27: The Grapes of Wrath

I really enjoyed Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. I feel like he was that character that had underlining “thing” about him. He is just very interesting and kind of confusing to me. While in prison he has shaped himself into a whole new person. He is living for the day and is not worrying about the future. To him, the future seems so far away and something that should not even be thought about it. I tend to agree. I feel like in order to go into the future, you must first survive the day. If you are always worrying about the future and what it has in store for you, then you will spend all of your time just worrying about it. I do think about the future and what I am going to do, but then I remember that in order to get there, I must first get past today. I feel like Tom kind of has the same point of view. But throughout the novel, you realize that Tom is destined to be more than a day to day person. I guess our world needs both kinds of people. They need those who are just living for the day, and they need those who are committed to bettering the future. I feel like I am kind of both going back to my previous statement. I feel like that I am living for the day in order to better the future. I need to get done what I need done in order to help the future. It is kind of confusing when I think about it. But Tom is just an extraordinary character. He helps Jim Casy with his teachings, and I feel like he does a great job. At the end of the novel, Tom leaves the kind of life that most of the men of that time had, and sets out to help the world around him. Tom Joad was definitely one of my favorite characters because he was so intriguing throughout the whole novel.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. NY: Penguin, 1939. Print.