Blog #6- Preacher Man

CHARACTER NAME: Jim Casy

QUOTES OF NOTE:
1. "I was a preacher. Reverend Jim Casy--was a Burning Busher. Used to howl out the name of Jesus to glory. And used to get an irrigation ditch so squirmin' full of repented sinners half of 'em like to drownded. But not no more. Just Jim Casy now. Ain't got the call no more. Got a lot of sinful idears--but they seem kinda sensible."
This quote not only introduces Jim Casy, but gives a little insight as far as who he is. It tells you his name, what he used to be, and why he used to be it. His name, Jim Casy, that he used to be a preacher, and that he stopped because he has sinful ideas that honestly don't seem like they should be sins at all.
2. "I says, 'Maybe it ain't a sin. Maybe it's just the way folks is. Maybe we been whippin' the hell out of ourselves for nothin'.' An' I thought how some sisters took to beatin' theirselves with a three-foot shag of bobwire. An' I thought how maybe they liked to hurt themselves, an' maybe I liked to hurt myself. Well, I was laying under a tree when I figured that out, and I went to sleep. And it come night, an' it was dark when I come to. They was a coyote squakin' near by. Before I knowed it, I was sayin' out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.'"
This quote gives you a feel for what Jim Casy believes. As an ex-preacher, it seems like something ridiculous to think - but he's human. He's just like anyone else, and he's come to realize that in his own right. People do good and people do bad, and he as a preacher had trouble comprehending that he was the same, and so he believed that he couldn't sin - so when he did something bad, he beat himself up over it - but it never helped and he just did it again, and couldn't figure out why until he had this epiphany, as we'll call it.
3. "I says, 'What's this call, this sperit?' An' I says, 'It's love. I love people so much I'm fit to bust, sometimes.' An' I says, 'Don't you love Jesus?' Well, I thought an thought, an' finally I says, 'No, I don't know nobody name' Jesus. I know a bunch of stories, but I only love people. An' sometimes I love 'em to fit to bust, an' I want to make 'em happy, so I been preachin' somepin I thought would make 'em happy.' An' then--I been talkin' a hell of a lot. Maybe you wonder about me using bad words. Well, they ain't bad to me no more. They're jus' words folks use, an' they don't mean nothing bad with 'em."
This quote makes you realize what Jim Cody's thinking is - the reason he believes what he believes now - it makes you realize that he's not really crazy - he's only human. He has beliefs, and he cares about people, but he wonders if this thing that's supposed to be out there really is out there, whether it's really such a big deal that he has to feel love for something that might not even be there... (at least that's what I think)
4. "I figgered about the Holy Sperit and the Jesus road. I figgered, 'Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe,' I figgered, '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."
This quote is more on the above quote - it makes you realize that Jim Casy's lost his faith in Jesus and the lord, and has just started to believe in people as a whole - not in the things that are written in the bible, or the things that he's meant to preach. He believes that people are people, no matter what some holy being would classify as sin or virtue or right or wrong or holy or unholy. He believes in the spirit he sees in other people, not in the way that a book says to see other people.