Tom Joad

Tom Joad is one of the main characters in this book. Tom is a very violent and passionate man. It is not that he is an evil man or that he is a naturally born killer, but when something or someone he cares about is disrespected or hurt, he tends to overreact. For example, when the guards attack his friend, Casy, in the twenty sixth chapter, with a pick handle, he takes the pick handle out of his friend's head and turns it on one of the guards before he gets hit in the head by the other guy(Steinbeck, 527). His anger got him so riled up that he killed a man even though it may have been justified. This series of actions expresses both of those characteristics of violence and passion.

We also know though that he has not always been on the straight and narrow road. When the story begins, Tom is out of prison and on his way to his family's farm when he hitches a ride with a trucker. The trucker is not sure he should because of his "no riders" sticker but Tom is able to in a way manipulate the man so the trucker thinks that if he does not give him a ride then that he is a bad man. Tom seems to be a very wise boy and now he is one of the best dressed in his family because of the clothes that the prison facility gave him when he was released. He only served four years and was released early on good behavior even though I do not remember what he went to jail for.

Tom is a man who served his time, is a very loving brother, and he will do anything to make sure that his family has everything that they need. Tom is the person of the group that makes the long journey away from camp to look for work and sometimes he gets it, whether it is picking cotton or picking baskets of peaches. He may not make them much money but he is a major reason why they are able to sustain themselves and to keep living.

Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.