Tom Joad

At this point in the story not much has been shown about Tom Joad on an emotional and physiological level. The only thing that really stuck out to me was what he told Casy. He describes his life in prison and what he did to another man. He said that he was in a fight with a man, both of the men were drunk at the time, and the man pulled a knife on Tom. He was stabbed by this man, but made it over to a shovel an killed the man by hitting him with it. He then describes how his life in prison was not really all that difficult. He says that the lack of women made it very hard on him. This is something that Casy could definitely relate to due to the fact that he had an extreme lust for women during his time as a preacher for the church. But the women were really the only bad part of it. He received very good treatment, having regular meals and just having it easy all around. I don’t think that prison really had a major impact on Tom just because it really was not that bad for him. After telling Casy this, it is clear that he likes the preacher. Tom makes a comment that the Joad family always thought very highly of him during his time as the preacher of their church. I think that both of these men like each other and can easily relate with each other as well. I also think that Casy will end up staying with Tom for quite a while but I’m not sure yet. At this point he has continued far enough to see the empty land that was the Joad farm, but I am not sure if Casy will stay long enough to meet up with the Joad family that Tom is trying to reach. Overall Tom hasn’t really opened up that much, but I would like to see how his character develops.