Character Analysis Of Tom In John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath

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Tom as a character changes over the course of the novel. Tom is the main character in the novel, Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. He is a character that influences the novel’s actions throughout the novel. Tom changes from worrying about only the family to worrying about the people in society as a result of tom interacting with many people in his situation. The character Tom starts by caring very much about only the family and himself for the family. When he is talking to Muley, pg 74 finish. Now this is when Tom first realized that other people were in his situation too. In this conversation, they were being asked if they were going to steal and he replied with,“You got no call to give us a goin’-over. We ain't asked you for nothin’. …show more content…

In this quote, the Wilson’s car fully broke down and they are going to need to fix it rather than just put less weight. So, Tom comes to the rescue by saying, “You take out some of that stuff in the truck an’ then all you folks but me an the preacher get a move on.” (pg 228) This quote shows that Tom helping people other than his family and in a way of affecting their life. It shows this by Tom helping them with the car, earlier in the book he may not have done this but now that he understands that if he just leaves them with a broken car, they will be in very big trouble since they don’t know how to fix a car. So by him helping them fix the car and even telling the rest of the family to move on while they fix the car, is taking a risk that if they can’t fix it or find the parts to fix it, is taking a risk that they don't need to make but since he understands their situation, he decides to solve their problem at risk of creating one for himself. This is when Tom had fully transformed into a person who cares about society and this specific society where everyone is in the same place as he