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“No-o-o,’’ he said. “I was for a little while. But I ain’t proud like some fellas. I let stuff run off’n me.”
This quotation from Tom Joad is in response to Ma Joad asking if being in prison made him “mean-mad” in Chapter 8. Tom believes he was able to escape the damaging effects of prison because he didn’t take the treatment to heart. As Tom will later explain, the way to get through prison is just to focus on the present moment, not allowing resentment to build or imagining too many dreams for the future. This strategy makes him closed off emotionally and unwilling to think too hard about the situation the family faces.
How’d I know? I’m jus’ puttin’ one foot in front a the other. I done it at Mac for four years, jus’ marchin’ in cell an’ out cell an’ in mess an’ out mess. Jesus Christ, I thought it’d be somepin different when I come out! Couldn’t think a nothin’ in there, else you go stir happy, an’ now can’t think a nothin’.
Tom makes this comment to Jim Casy in Chapter 16 in response to Casy’s observation that there might not be enough jobs for the sheer amount of people going west. Tom is angry at Casy for forcing him to think about the future because it disrupts his survival strategy that he honed in prison. Living in the moment keeps Tom from getting upset with all the things he can’t control. However, it’s clear that he also has a more difficult time analyzing the situation he’s in than Jim Casy because he cuts himself off from the big picture.
You got more sense, Tom. I don’ need to make you mad. I got to lean on you. Them others—they’re kinda strangers, all but you. You won’t give up, Tom.
Ma Joad makes this comment to Tom in Chapter 26, after she lectures Pa on the importance of moving out of the government camp to find work. The disheartening situation in California has led to changes in most of the Joad men, especially Pa, but Tom remains dependable and steadfast. Tom’s ability to simply do what needs to be done instead of overthinking has made him resilient in the face of hardship.
Tom looked down at the preacher. The light crossed the heavy man’s legs and the white new pick handle. Tom leaped silently. He wrenched the club free. The first time he knew he had missed and struck a shoulder, but the second time his crushing blow found the head, and as the heavy man sank down, three more blows found his head.
This quotation describes Tom’s demeanor in Chapter 26 immediately after the murder of Jim Casy. His retaliation here mirrors the murder that landed him in prison in that both involve smashing the victim. The parallel serves to demonstrate that Tom’s actions are not out of anger or meanness, but wrath. He is striking back against life-threatening cruelty. This moment marks a turning point for Tom. Even though the book portrays his behavior as justified, he can no longer live out in the open in the eyes of the law.
I been thinkin’ a hell of a lot, thinkin’ about our people livin’ like pigs, an’ the good rich lan’ layin’ fallow, or maybe one fella with a million acres, while a hunderd thousan’ good farmers is starvin’. An’ I been wonderin’ if all our folks got together an’ yelled, like them fellas yelled, only a few of ’em at the Hooper ranch——
Tom says these words to Ma Joad in Chapter 28 during their final conversation. Here, he makes his decision to carry on the work of Jim Casy in labor organizing. Throughout much of the book, Tom tries to avoid thinking as much as possible, instead simply doing what needs to get done. In the wake of Jim Casy’s death, Tom begins to think, in the same way Jim Casy spends his time thinking in the wake of his spiritual crisis. Instead of finding this kind of thinking paralyzing, as he did previously, now Tom’s thoughts spur him to action.
