Favorite Prose: Grapes of Wrath

One of the best novels ever written. I can't possibly do justice to the context of the story in this measly little blog, so if you don't know it, you need to read the book, but Tom Joad, the main character, is contemplating the unjust death of his friend Jim Casy, the preacher-turned-labor activist, whose initials, coincidentally, he shares with another religious social activist in his day, Jesus Christ.

“A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody, then...then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.”