The Grapes of Wrath: Chapter 4

Since chapter four was considerably longer than the previous chapters, I feel that it should get its own blog post.

Chapter four was just chalk full of philosophical quotes and some really deep thinking, which I honestly did not expect from an Oklahoman who just got out of prison for killing a man in a drunken fight, and a preacher who had sex with the women of the congregation. As it turns out though, they both have some pretty deep thoughts, which I guess it’s just human nature to think of things other than normal life.

One of the preacher’s, or ex-preacher I should say, quotes that stood out to me was “The hell with it! There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain’t nice, but that’s as far as any man got a right to say.” Then he goes on to say “I says, ‘What’s this call, this sperit?’ An’ I says, ‘It’s love. I love people so much I’m fit to bust, sometimes.’ An’ I says, ‘Don’t you love Jesus?’ Well, I thought an’ thought, an’ finally I says, ‘No, I don’t know nobody name’ Jesus. I know a bunch of stories, but I only love people. An’ sometimes I love ‘em fit to bust, an’ I want to make ‘em happy, so I been preachin’ somepin thought would make ‘em happy.’”(Steinbeck 23) To me those two quotes sum up what, I think, the rest of the book is going to characterize. That family is very important, and love for other people is more important than the feeling of telling people that they’re going to burn in hell if they don’t accept Jesus (I guess that’s more for the preacher than anybody, but it’s the same principle none the less.) Then the Casy goes on to describe how he believes that the “Holy Spirit” is just the “human sperit” and that everybody “got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.” (Steinbeck 24) Sounds just as logical to me as any other religious theory.

P.S. I apologize to my spellcheck, it’s not my fault, I have to type it how it is.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.