JC effectively sacrifices himself in Chapter 20. He had been talking about leaving the group for a while now, but in Chapter 20 he does so in a rather...different way.
He had earlier spoken of leaving, saying he was being a burden; he's eating their food and isn't really helping in return. He suggested that he could go get a job and pay them back for all the Joads have done for him. Tom brushes him off, effectively telling him not to worry about it and that Jim's pretty much family to them.
It turns out this was foreshadowing. In Chapter 20, Floyd Knowles of Hooverville asks for a contract and set payment for work (the contractors seem to be rather fond of cheating people out of a fair salary), which caused the contractor to get a police deputy, who arrests Floyd and threatens others. This begins a fight, causing Floyd to run off, causing the deputy to shoot at him, instead shooting a woman in the hand. Tom jumps in and trips the deputy and Jim knocks him unconscious. JC volunteers to be arrested instead of Jim, reminding him that he had broken parole.
I'd previously mentioned Jim Casy has the same initials as Jesus Christ, which I mentioned was probably not an accident. JC's sacrifice made it evident that this is definitely true; in the New Testament, Jesus willingly died for the sins of the people, basically allowing the world to go on. In The Grapes of Wrath, Jim allows himself to be arrested to allow Jim to continue. By being arrested, Jim is no longer involved in the story, effectively "killing" himself.
See, I'm not that bad at symbolism.
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