Tom Joad, the protagonist in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, is portrayed as the main voice against the corrupt authorities of the Dust Bowl and California in the 1930s Great Depression Era. Tom also develops qualities throughout the course of the novel that make him comparable to the “Ideal American Man” created by American Revolution writer Thomas Paine. Throughout The Grapes of Wrath, Tom turns his internal anger against those he believes are committing wrongs against his society in order to unite the migrant workers. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath begins with an unnamed man asking a truck driver for a ride. The man’s hatred for the capitalistic society controlled by corporations is made evident when he sees the No Riders sticker on the truck and asks the driver for a ride regardless, saying “... sometimes a guy’ll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker,” (Steinbeck 11). This man is later revealed to be Tom Joad, the protagonist of the novel who has just been released from his four-year prison sentence for homicide. He believes that he has done his time for killing a man with a shovel, feeling no guilt or shame about the situation. In fact, Tom even tells the truck driver that he would kill again if he were in the same circumstance of having to defend himself. …show more content…
When Casy tells Tom his Emersonian belief of the Oversoul, Tom does not take his ideas to heart as he will later in the novel. Tom is portrayed as individualistic and selfish in the beginning of The Grapes of Wrath, with a very narrow view of the world. His self-reliance is emphasized when he, Casy, and Muley have to camp and they invite Tom to sleep inside a cave with them. Tom refuses, showing his unwillingness to cooperate with others, a characteristic of his shown multiple times over the course of the beginning of the