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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.
This quotation from Jim Casy in Chapter 4 sets up his humanistic spirituality. He believes in a self-determined morality that allows for people to choose kindness or cruelty based on what feels necessary to them in the moment. He furthermore does not believe anyone has a right to judge others for their individual choices. As Jim Casy serves as a Christ figure in the novel, this early statement establishes him as preaching values quite different from traditional Christian morality.
I gotta see them folks that’s gone out on the road. I got a feelin’ I got to see them. They gonna need help no preachin’ can give ’em. Hope of heaven when their lives ain’t lived? Holy Sperit when their own sperit is downcast an’ sad? They gonna need help. They got to live before they can afford to die.
Jim Casy makes this comment in Chapter 6 while Muley is explaining how people have been uprooted from their homes and are fleeing to California to find work. He largely makes this statement of resolve to himself, voicing ideas for how to transform his preaching into something earthly and humanistic. Unlike traditional Christian morality, Casy believes in the importance of the present moment instead of focusing on living for future promises of heaven.
I ain’t gonna baptize. I’m gonna work in the fiel’s, in the green fiel’s, an’ I’m gonna be near to folks. I ain’t gonna try to teach ’em nothin’. I’m gonna try to learn. Gonna learn why the folks walks in the grass, gonna hear ’em talk, gonna hear ’em sing.
In this quotation from Chapter 10, Jim Casy subverts the traditional role of a preacher by focusing on being a constant student of life instead of a teacher of morals. Instead of separating himself from his “congregation,” Casy intends to work alongside them and experience the same things they do. One of the things Casy disliked about being a preacher was the way it meant he had to carry himself apart from laypeople, watching his language and unable to laugh at crass jokes. In his vision of purpose for himself, being around common people just as they are is central to understanding life.
Casy said gently, “Sure I got sins. Ever’body got sins. A sin is somepin you ain’t sure about. Them people that’s sure about ever’thing an’ ain’t got no sin—well, with that kind of a son-of-a-bitch, if I was God I’d kick their ass right outa heaven! I couldn’ stand ’em!”
Casy offers this counsel to Uncle John in Chapter 18 when Uncle John asks if it’s possible that he’s brought bad luck to the family. Here, Casy radically redefines sin in accordance with his humanistic philosophy. Because Casy believes in personal morality, to him a sin is an action that a person regrets doing or isn’t sure they should have done. In accordance with this philosophy, individuals who think they have no sin are usually unpleasant because they never self-reflect.
Casy stared blindly at the light. He breathed heavily. “Listen,” he said. “You fellas don’ know what you’re doin’. You’re helpin’ to starve kids.”
Casy’s final words before his death in Chapter 26 echo those of Jesus Christ on the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” This moment not only emphasizes Jim Casy as a humanist, working-class Christ figure, but the ways he differs from Christ. Christ’s last words focus on God as the ultimate arbiter and judge. Casy’s words attempt to get the strike-breakers on the Hooper ranch to judge their own actions, asking them to self-reflect on how they hurt others.
