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Symbolism in the Grapes of WrathAuthor(s): Eric W. CarlsonSource: College English, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Jan., 1958), pp. 172-175Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/371677 .

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RebuttalSYMBOLISMNThe Grapes of Wrath

ERICW. CARLSONIn his "Christian Symbolism in TheGrapes of Wrath"(CE, Nov. 1956) MartinShockley shows a commendable freedomfrom the usual critical stereotypes aboutthis novel as a "propaganda ract" of theThirties or as an example of "sociologicalnaturalism" n fiction. In disagreeingwithPaton and Pope he holds that Casy is atrue Christ-symboland that "the meaningof the book is revealedthrough a sequence

of Christian symbols"; in agreeing withF. I. Carpenter("The PhilosophicalJoads,"CE, Jan. 1941) he nevertheless finds a"further,stronger, more direct relation tothe Bible." Qualified only by the remarkthat Casy's religion is "innocent of Paul-ism, of Catholicism,of Puritanism,"Shock-ley's interpretationof Casy identifies him"simplyand directly with Christ"from theevidence of his new-found religion, hisdeeds, and his death, and from Tom's dis-cipleship and Rosasharn'ssacramentalgiftof herself in the final scene of the novel.In short, the major intended meaning, it isclaimed, is "essentially and thoroughlyChristian."Now all this may seem plausibleand initself innocent enough. A closer examina-tion of the novel as a whole, however, willlead to rather different conclusions, name-ly: (1) the Christiansymbols and Biblicalanalogies function at best in a secondarycapacity within a context of meaning thatis so unorthodox as to be the opposite ofwhat is generally considered "Christian";(2) the primarysymbolic structure,as wellas meaning, is naturalisticand humanistic,not Christian; (3) the main theme reflectsnot only this foreground of natural sym-bolism but also the author's philosophicperspectiveof scientifichumanism.In otherwords, in The Grapesof Wrath a few looseBiblical analogies may be identified, butthese are not primaryto the structure andtheme of the novel, and to contend thatthey give it an "essentiallyand thoroughlyChristian"meaningis to distort Steinbeck's

intention and its primary framework ofnon-Christiansymbolism.In the first place, several of the Biblicalanalogies are really so tenuous as to de-pend entirely on other, major parallelsforvalidity. Tom Joad as the Prodigal Son,for instance,hardlymakes for a strong anddirect analogy: Tom is quite unrepentant,having killed in self-defense, and Tom'shome-comingis described n a most movingfashion,without benefit of analogy. Otherof the cited analogiescan be invoked onlyas the loosest sort of parallels,hardly meta-phoric, much less symbolic. For example,to speak of the Joads and other migrantsas wandering, ike the Israelites, n a wilder-ness of hardshipswhile they seek the Prom-ised Land is but to point up by conven-tional metaphorthe general emotional pat-tern of the trek westward and the long-awaitedsight of California.Even when theJoads make their dramatic entrance intoCalifornia,as describedin Ch. 18, that factis subordinateto the significance of Ma'sstoicism (only she hasknown of Grandma'sdeath), her concern for the unity of thefamily, Tom's idealism,etc. As for Noah'sgoing down the river, Shockley choosesnot to "press"this point, major examplesbeing enough. But if major examplessuf-fice, why speak of the truck drivers'gen-erous tips (in Ch. 15) as constitutingMae'sreward for "casting her bread upon thewaters"?Wouldn't it be far simplerto say,without recourse to Biblical allusion, thatthis incident dramatizes a simple humanfact: kindnessbreedskindness?The strong-est and most direct relationshipof this in-cident is not to Christ but to Mae's earlierreluctance to sell the loaf of bread and,by an even more emphaticcontrast,to thepenny-pinching tourist couples-both sug-gestive of how the hard shell of economicexploitation inhibits natural sympathy andgenerosity. In fact, Ch. 15 is but one of anumber of carefully interrelated chaptersthat develop the social theme of mutualism

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THE GRAPES OF WRATHand its negative counterpart, possessiveegoism, out of a pattern of human expe-rience that is realized pragmatically, nottheistically,and distilled into natural,socialand epic symbols.The title-phrase "Grapes of Wrath" isa good case in point. According to Shock-ley, it is "a direct Christianallusion, sug-gesting the glory of the coming of theLord, revealing that the story exists inChristiancontext, indicatingthat we shouldexpect to find some Christian meaning."One grants that the "BattleHymn of theRepublic" expresses the spirit of militantChristianity, he sacrificial dealismand theretribution associated with the Calvinistlegacy of the South. But except for fanaticslike GrandmaJoad and the Jehovites, thespecifically Christian association of "thegrapesof wrath" hasdisappeared mongthemigrants,even as Casy had abandonedhisold-style revivalismin search of somethingbetter. From the first chapter to the last,the "grapesof wrath"theme representstheindomitablespirit of man-that spirit whichremains whole by resisting despair andresignation in the face of the drought oflife, physical privation,exploitation,perse-cution, the tyranny of name-calling, andthe uprootingof the very way of life itself.Out of these shared miseries there growsa spirit of resistanceto the "possessiveego-tism" (Carpenter's erm) of absenteeown-ership-"'a bad thing made by men, andby God that's somethingwe can change'";out of this nonconformity comes a senseof sharedpurposeand group action. Or, inthe words of one of the interchapters,"From need to concept to action." Inbrief, then, the "grapes of wrath" themeis not specificallyChristian or two reasons:it is not an expressionof Christianhumilityand resignation;and, if one grants that theChristianspiritmay on occasionbe assertiveand militant, here the title theme has itsorigin in the character and the experienceof the people rather than in a body of re-ligious concepts and beliefs. As BarkerFairley has made clear (SR, Apr. 1942),with special reference to the style of thisnovel, The Grapes of Wrath hasbehindit along American "democratic tradition"which is embodied in its "epic form" and

in its "epic tendency" of style, as well asin its folkways and philosophy.Jim Casy belongs to this deeply rootedAmericanliberal-democraticradition.LikeEmerson, Casy gives up the church andbecomes a humble free-thinking seeker ofthe truth, relying on observation, sharedexperience, natural sympathy, and naturalintrospectionandinsight. When the revela-tion of his new calling comes to Casy, itcomes as a result of his havinglived amongthe migrants,sharingtheir hardships,miser-ies, and hopes. His new faith grows outof an experientialunderstandingand loveof his fellow man. As articulatedby Casy,his new faith has four major beliefs: (1)a belief in the brotherhood of man, mani-festing itself as "love"-i.e., good will, com-passionand mutualism;(2) a belief in thespirit-of-man as the oversoul or HolySpirit shared by all men in their outgoinglove; (3) a belief in the unity of man andnature; and (4) an acceptance of all lifeas an expressionof spirit. To Casy thesebeliefs are ideal spiritualvalues and there-fore "holy"; he seems to doubt that theword "holy" has any other valid meaning,really, and that there is holiness enough inthe ideal unity of common purpose (spirit)when men strive together toward a worthygoal in harmony with nature (the way oflife). Here we have the social theme again,with religiousovertones associatedby somereaders with Christianity or at least thatcore Christianitywhich remains after doc-trine, dogma, sacrament, ritual, miracle,and theism itself have been strippedaway,leaving only the idealized brotherhood ofman and the unitarianOver-Soul. "'I fig-gered about the Holy Sperit and the Jesusroad,' " Casy explained."I figgered, "Whydo we got to hang it on God or Jesus?Maybe," I figgered,"maybeit's all men an'all women we love; maybe that's the HolySperit-the humansperit-the whole she-bang. Maybe all men got one big soulever'body's a part of." Now I sat therethinkin'it, an' all of a suddent I knew it.I knew it so deep down that it was true,and I still know it.'" Like Emerson'sBrah-ma, this is not the God of Christ at leastnot to CasyandSteinbeck;and it is dubioussemantics to insist on labeling "Christian"so unorthodox a creed. Christianitywithout

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COLLEGE ENGLISHChrist is hardly Christianity. And althoughCarpenter concludes that "a new kind ofChristianity - not otherworldly and pas-sive, but earthly and active" - is developedfrom Steinbeck's integration of "three greatskeins of American thought" (Emersonian-ism, Whitman's democratic religion, andpragmatism), that integration is less a prod-uct and characteristic of Christianity than itis of the humanist tendency and characterof the American experience and the mod-ern climate of opinion.But if Casy's beliefs are not characteris-tically Christian, there is still a strikingsimilarity to Christ in Casy's initials andhis dying words. In those final words-"You don't know what you're a-doin' "-theideas of resurrection and redemption areconspicuously absent, however. His deathis not the death of a redeeming Christ, anymore than the death of Jim Conklin inThe Red Badge of Courage s such a death,even if both have names beginning withJ and C. Casy does not seek death, nor ishe resigned to it when it comes, though inhis last words he seems to forgive his ene-mies. Apart from dramatizing the brutalityof exploitative capitalism (not capitalism assuch, necessarily), the significance of Casy'sdeath lies in its indication of his love ofman, a love that risked death even as Tomassumes Casy's mission at the same risk.This love of man, channeled by a demo-cratic sense of social justice and a realisticsense of pragmatic action, explains Casy'scompulsion to serve his fellow man, andhis willingness to take the blame, afterstriking down the deputy, in order to saveTom from arrest. Sacrificial in appearance,this latter action is motivated by a prag-matic social idealism.After Casy's death, Tom consciously ac-cepts the mission of Casy's practical human-itarianism as more inspiring and realisticthan Christian resignation to circumstanceand the promise of heavenly reward.The strained quality of Shockley's thesisis most apparent, however, in his interpre-tation of the final scene, where Rosasharngives her breast milk to save the life ofthe starving old man. Here an attempt ismade to cram a stark, primal symbol intothe mold of orthodox Christian symbolismand doctrine. Having identified Casy's

gospel as "innocent of Paulism, Catholi-cism and Puritanism,"Shockley now iden-tifies Rosasharn's symbolic action withCommunionor Mass and with the "resur-rective aspect of Christ"! How much sim-pler is Carpenter's remark that in thisscene Rosasharn "symbolically transmutesher maternallove to a love of all people."As implied by her smile and hair-strokinggesture, Rosasharn, whose maternal in-stinct has been frustrated,feels a momen-tary satisfaction. But the beauty and thesignificance of this scene derive chieflyfrom its symbolizing the main theme ofthe novel: the prime function of life is tonourishlife. Throughout most of the novelRosasharnhas been a weak, silly, and senti-mental woman- an ironic contrast to theidealized Rose of Sharon of the "Song ofSolomon." And yet in this closing scenecommon biology and psychology are trans-cended and transformed by a symbolicmeaning that grows out of the natural,right, and compassionatequality of the ac-tion itself and out of the alreadydevelopedstructure of symbolism and meaning. Infact, I can think of no more impressiveexample of what William Sansomrecently(NYTBR, 30 Dec. 1956) termed the roundending, one "that truly 'rounds off' thebook, completing as a broad and livingthing- an egg, if you like, rather than astraight thin line between arbitrarypoints.Round indeed as the final chords of a sym-phony- whose quality is not only finalitybut also a balanced suggestion that themusic really continues ... an ending mustsuggest the continuance of life, and, bydefinition,of that which makeslife contin-uable and endurable, hope: the end thusmust be a statement of beginning."That this "roundness" and significancelies not in any specifically Christiansym-bolism can be seen in Steinbeck's carefulpreparationof the primary symbolic struc-ture of the novel, a body of symbolismwhich, in keeping with the theme, is bothnaturalistic and experiential. Ch. 1, forinstance, describes the way the elementalforces in nature turn into dust and death.In the last paragraphof this chapter themen attempt to think through their frus-tration as they face this drought of life.Here, at the outset, is implied the universal

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