John Steinbeck carefully molded his story The Grapes of Wrath to encompass many themes and ideas. He included several Biblical allusions to enforce his message of the migrating families coming together to form a community. Steinbeck alludes to Biblical characters through Jim Casy and Rose of Sharon, events like the family's journey to California and the flood at the end of the novel, and teachings throughout the novel.
             One of the many levels on which this novel can be read is as a parallel to the stories of Christ and the Exodus (Louis Owens, John Steinbeck's Re-Vision of America, quoted in DeMott, xiii)The Biblical allusions represented by the characters in the novel are most obvious in the characters of Jim Casy and Rose of Sharon. However, the Joad family is made up of twelve including Connie, much like the twelve disciples that followed Jesus. Connie represents the traitor, the Judas figure who had betrayed Jesus the night of his arrest when he walks out on his family for selfish reasons. Jim Casy is an allusion to Jesus Christ. They have the same initials and live their lives as examples of their beliefs; Casy even compares himself to Christ when he says, "I got tired like Him, an' I got mixed up like Him, an' I went into the wilderness like Him, without no campin' stuff" (105). In the first half of the book Casy is thinking and forming his ideas. He changes from a thinker to a man of action when he sacrifices himself for Tom. When in prison Casy sees the advantage of organizing people to achieve a common goal. When Casy tried to put his ideas into action he, like Christ, aroused the antagonism of the people in authority and was brutally killed. Casy's last words, to his killers, are "You don' know what you're a-doin'" (Steinbeck, 495). These are strikingly similar to Christ's words on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23.34). The difference between them is th...