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Chapter 4

Tom meets the preacher Casy

Summary

Tom Joad walks the dust road toward his father's farm, takes off his stiff new shoes, and picks up a land turtle as a present for his little brother. Under a scrawny willow he finds Jim Casy, the preacher who baptised him as a boy, singing a hymn to the tune of "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby". Casy has quit preaching. He explains the reasoning that undid him: he kept taking girls into the grass after his own revival meetings, and concluded there is no sin and no virtue, only "stuff people do", that what he called the Holy Spirit is the love of people, and that all men may share one big soul. Tom tells him about McAlester and the killing, without shame. The turtle keeps escaping and being re-wrapped. They walk on together, trading family stories, until they top the rise and see the Joad place standing empty.

Plates

Illustration style

The truck goes on without him
00 The truck goes on without him
The new shoes come off
01 The new shoes come off
Dragging his cloud of dust
02 Dragging his cloud of dust
The land turtle
03 The land turtle
The bar of absolute shade is taken
04 The bar of absolute shade is taken
The pint offered to the preacher
05 The pint offered to the preacher
Drawing his thoughts on the ground
06 Drawing his thoughts on the ground
Casy lays the words down in his palm
07 Casy lays the words down in his palm
Four years in McAlester
08 Four years in McAlester
Nobody there
09 Nobody there
The truck goes on without him
00 The truck goes on without him
The new shoes come off
01 The new shoes come off
Dragging his cloud of dust
02 Dragging his cloud of dust
The land turtle
03 The land turtle
The bar of absolute shade is taken
04 The bar of absolute shade is taken
The pint offered to the preacher
05 The pint offered to the preacher
Drawing his thoughts on the ground
06 Drawing his thoughts on the ground
Casy lays the words down in his palm
07 Casy lays the words down in his palm
Four years in McAlester
08 Four years in McAlester
Nobody there
09 Nobody there

Composition

Written: 1 June 1938 to 4 June 1938 Journal entries: #3, #4, #5, #6 Dating: from DeMott's editorial markers in Working Days

From the journal

1 June 1938, Wednesday — Entry #3

To work at 10:30. Minimum of two pages. Duke* expected today making it not so good. Yesterday turtle episode which satisfies me in a number of ways. Today’s project—Joad’s walk down the road and meeting with the minister [Ed.—opening section of Chapter 4]. Dinner tonight at Pauls’* with Rays* along. Day is over. Finished my two pages. I think pretty […]

2 June 1938, Thursday, 10:30 — Entry #4

Drive continues. Today the argument against sin and the means of losing it—the quest for the true spirit [Ed.—middle section of Chapter 4]. This should be a good sharp section. Duke did not arrive. Probably today. Dinner at Louis’s very interesting. He read two sections and there is a very fine tone to them. Conversation re hay fever, a curious […]

3 June 1938, Friday — Entry #5

[…] of this day. I want to finish my stint if I possibly can. Impulses to do other things. Wind blowing over me, etc. But must continue today for sake of discipline. Well, the stint is done but I think I’ll try to finish out the chapter tomorrow [Ed.—Chapter 4]. Be about one more page. Lionel Smith came over. Bob C. […]

4 June 1938, Saturday, 2:40 — Entry #6

[…] [Ed.—Chapter 5] tells of the coming of the tractors and must have a symphonic overtone, and, moreover, may not be more than four or five pages long, it would be just as well to limit the day’s work to this chapter. Hence this attempt. Finished Chapter II [Ed.—Chapter 4]. Now must make music again. But on Monday and that will […]

Source: Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938–1941, ed. Robert DeMott (Viking, 1989).