Every chapter from Rhetoric has brought us to placing
various characters into categories and stages of development. Just today, we
discussed pilgrimages versus quests and which characters think one or the
other. Time and time again, we get to Tom and are not really sure what to say.
What is it about Tom Joad that makes him so hard to place? Even from the
beginning of the novel, we are not really sure about Tom Joad. He has just
gotten out of prison on parole after 4 years. His conversation with the truck
driver draws us to keep our eyes on him through the story, as the narrator
wants. Why, then, do we not get to see his ideals, fears, and changes as well as
we see in the other characters?
There are main characters created by the author specifically
to be the “empty shell” readers fit into as the story goes along, like Bella
from Twilight. Could Tom Joad be the empty shell we, as readers, fit into? Obviously,
there are some descriptions set up as to the kind of person Tom is, but he is
relatively vague; Oakie, no regrets, fresh from prison. If this is the case, is
it possible that we are supposed to develop along with Tom Joad as he goes
through these hardships with his family?
In all honesty, I’m not so sure of this theory. From what I
have read of “shell characters”, they usually go through little, if not zero,
changes through the story to accommodate the various differences in the
readers. If there are changes, normally there is not so much a clear, specific
beginning state. In Twilight, (I know. bear with me) Bella does not have any
sort of ideals about the Supernatural (vampires and werewolves). She is simply
a “normal teenager girl.” Did Tom start out as a “average oakie” and then
developed his and our thoughts on migrant workers and their lives during the 1930’s?
It's an interesting idea, Evelyn. I'd have to see a little more elaboration on the notion of a "shell character" to make the call myself. It's important that Tom remain fairly bland but likable at the beginning, so that some of his more bolshevisky moves at the end of the novel can be a legit transformation. But you can't imagine the Tom at the beginning of the novel give that closing speech at all--he definitely develops in relation to experience and interaction with Casy.
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