JIM CASY! IT'S JESUS CHRIST! OR JIM CHRIST? JESUS CASY? (Chapter 1 - 10, Option I)

Jim Casy. Jesus Christ. Same thing. Different ideas source

Jim Casy was a former preacher, who had given up on preaching after sleeping with some girls he had preached for and lost his faith. Casy questions his faith, and struggles to form a clear concepts. He finalizes his faith on:

[...] maybe it's all men an' all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit--the human sperit--the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of.' Now i sat there thinkin' it, an' all of a suddent--I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it. (Steinbeck, 24).

 Casy finalizes his faith on the Transcendentalist idea of the oversoul. Casy says that the "Holy Sperit", which can be compared to God or another supreme being, is within "all men an' all women". This is the departure from typical Christian belief of a single all powerful god. Instead, "ever'body's a part of" that power. He departs away from his old faith of Christianity and begins preaching for this new idea. However, this idea is different from Christ's teaching, but in many ways they perform the same roles. They both

Both Jim Casy and Jesus Christ share the same initials, J.C. hinting at their connection. But the connection between the two are not only superficial. The roles they play in the spread of faith are the similar. Jesus Christ spread Christianity. Jim Casy spreads his new ideas to others, beginning with the Joans. Casy even compares himself to Jesus, saying:

But [Casy] got tired like [Jesus], an' I got mixed up like Him, an' I went into the wilderness like Him (81).

This establishes Casy's character as a preacher for this new idea, a counter to the common faith of Christianity, similar to Jesus' fight versus the Romans. It also foreshadow's Casy's multiple hardships along his journey, and maybe potential death at the end of the story to follow in the same footsteps as Jesus.