Grapes of Wrath: Tom Joad

Tom Joad is the protagonist of the Grapes of Wrath and I didn't really like him whatsoever. Not once did I feel myself being concerned for Tom's well-being or if I even cared if he lived or died. He was not a relateable character whatever I felt. He starts the novel as just being released from prison for four years after he is paroled from homicide. He starts off by telling us that prison changed him into living for the moment and only being concerned with his survival for the day, which in my opinion is just a stupid philosophy to have. Eventually he changes his way of looking at life into one for bettering his life and having a more positive outlook on the future but seeing as how that was the only logical and seemingly sane version for the character to progress I wasn't impressed at all. Seriously the novel was just a straight forward ride the entire time with nothing surprising happening at all. It seems like half of the events in the plot and through character development could be pretty easily seen and predicted which gives the book too much of an air of predictability, which I don't enjoy in my novels. I like being surprised by happening in my novel or character progression happening do to important events in the book that not only affect the character, but they give me a feeling of having witnessed what just happened, or some jazz along those lines. I honestly didn't like any of the characters in this novel and Tom Joad was one of my least favorites due in fact to his massively obvious character development and the fact that I couldn't relate to him in any way shape or form. In fact I really don't think he was a good protagonist for this novel in any way shape or form that comes to mind. I really just didn't like this book at all as you can tell and most of these blogs are going to be me picking apart every little nuance that I can find that annoys me.