Character Response

At the beginning of In Dubious Battle we start off with Jim, a young man who is trying to find a place in the world. His childhood was not the best, when he was a teenager his sister went missing and the case soon went cold. After this his mother becomes distant and his father angry. A few years prior from where we begin the story, Jim's father had also been killed in a fight. Jim has just been released from jail after being arrested for viewing a protest. His mother has recently passed away and he is completely lost in the world. Jim feels that he will die like his father, fortunately when he was in jail this last time he met people who were in the party. Jim now believes that the party maybe his way out of this vicious cycle his parents unconsciously led him into. As soon as he gets out of jail he contacts the party informing them he wants to join. He is soon accepted and meets his party family, Mac, Dick, and Joy. He is now doing some of their unimportant work, getting a feel of what it's like to be apart of something bigger. He wants more though, and soon gets what he's asked for. Mac decides that it is fine if Jim goes along with him on the next strike and they head off to the little apple orchard town. Jim is amazed at the world outside the city he's lived in his whole life and longs to see more of it. Here Jim is really beginning to discover what he wants. When they get to the town Jim follows Mac around eager to know more about how people work and craving for the strike to begin. First they have to find where some of the pickers are camping and they soon find London and his group. They help deliver Lucy's baby and Jim is amazed at how persuasive Mac is and also how well he understands how everyone thinks. Soon the picking begins and Jim's feelings of being apart of something bigger strengthens, he is becoming more confident. Here Jim starts to understand how everyone thinks and is quickly learning from Mac's actions. Though not all of Jim's actions have seemed smart to Mac, many of them have turned out to be lucrative, such as Jim spending his time and effort on Dan. Jim also begins to understand the art of persuasion and adds in points, such as the cotton wages when they are talking to Dakin, in their conversations to strengthen their arguments. Through the rest of the story Jim learns about protesting and how easily men can get discouraged, but also riled up. He also learns how to deal with men who lose everything. At the end of the story Jim has a fire in his spirit that fuels him up, wanting to always move. He know feels that he has a purpose in life and wants to achieve it. He is a much different person then who he was at the beginning. I can easily relate to Jim's most prominent conflict, finding a place to fit into. It's hard to find what you want to do in life, and where you belong. Once I did find what you want to do it's like nothing can stop it though, which is a lot like what happened to Jim. Another issue Jim deals with was his upbringing and how his dad was an alcoholic, he could have easily followed into that cycle but he broke out of it. I too have dealt with parents who had similar problems, but if anything it kept me away from it even more. Though some of Jim's issues are easy to connect with them not all of them are.