Dramatic Monologue

Garg 1 Rishi Garg English 10, 1st Period Mr. Fox 15 January 2008

Dramatic Monologue – Tom Joad Well hey there. I see you’re looking at this here picture I’ve got. Would you like to know who that is? It’s my dear old buddy, Jim Casy. Naw, he’s gone to a better place now. So you wanna hear what happened to him, huh? All right, I’ll tell you. It’s a sad story, but I think it’s worth hearing. Who knows, you might just learn a thing or two. I guess I’d best start with how I met him. He was a preacher when I was a kid, He was always tryin’ to baptize me and all. I would always be pullin’ girls’ hair, And he’d dunk me in the holy water. Back then, I could hardly get the meaning of what he was preaching. It was all as good as trash to me. But then I went to jail for killing a man. As soon as I was sprung out, I met Jim again. He was different… he didn’t really preach no more. But he still had that spirit in him. We walked together to my old man’s place. But we didn’t find nobody there. We found out they was all at Uncle John’s place. So we walked there. Turns out everyone got kicked outta our old place. So they was all planning to go to California And find jobs as fruit pickers. Well, I had no place else to go. I was looking for a job for myself… I guessed I could find some work in California. We invited Jim along, too. You know, I was a lot different back then. After four years in jail, I thought that I should focus on the present And not the future.

Garg 2 Seize the day, you know? I thought that the future was out of reach And that thinking about it would drive me mad. So I would always just think about myself and the present. I guess you could call me narrow-minded back then. Granma loved religion. She knew Jim was a preacher, So she would always ask him for some encouraging words. I’ll never forget what he’d always say: When a man acts alone, he doesn’t affect nobody. He can only achieve wholeness by helping other people out. I don’t think I really believed what he said Until we got to California. As soon as we got there We found out that the farm owners were cheating all the migrants. And whenever a group of migrants protested against that scum Someone got killed. Well finally, one day, Jim and I decided to get involved. One of those idiot policemen bashed Jim’s skull in. I guess I got a little angry and killed the policeman Then got away. While I was hiding, I thought about what Jim had been saying all his life. It’s true that when a man acts alone, he don’t affect nobody. I don’t think Jim would have helped nobody if there wasn’t so many migrants. It’s also true that a man can only achieve wholeness by helping others. I’m pretty darn sure that Jim gave his life to a good cause And he’s going to Heaven for sure. I guess my old ways of seizing the day and focusing on the present don’t really work. So my new philosophy is: If there’s ever a starving child I’ll be there. If there’s ever a person in need I’ll be there. If the community is in need I’ll be there.