"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."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 4. This quote is about the indomitable human spirit and demonstrates Jim Casy’s humanist philosophy. It is also one of a number of examples in the novel of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s "Over-Soul." This is the belief that all human beings are part of one universal soul, and not individual souls. The rebel Casy believes that the Holy Spirit is different to the divine being as portrayed in the Bible. We are all part of one all-embracing community soul, he believes, and the Holy Spirit is the love that joins us all together in that. Casy rejects the American Christian emphasis on guilt and sin.