"....There
was the hills, an' there was me, an' we wasn't separate no more. We was one thing. An'
that one thing was
holy."
These words by Jim
Casy echo those of Ralph Waldo Emerson who described man's unity with all things in the
universe in the concept of the Oversoul. Casy feels that man has existed in harmony
with nature, a "holy" experience he has had when while staying in the woods. And, Casy
contends, when all men work in harmony with one another and with nature, that, too, is
holy. Only when men strike out on their own and act against one another and nature do
things become unholy.
With initials that are the same as
Jesus Christ, Jim Casy devotes his life to helping his fellow man, even to becoming the
sacrificial victim. Truly, his character is an Emersonian expression of a larger self
and a voice for the ideals of the author, John Steinbeck.
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