How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
"[...] My whole family has been ruined by this system. My old man, my father, was slugged so much in labor trouble that he went punch-drunk. He got an idea that he'd like to dynamite a slaughter-house where he used to work. Well, he caught a charge of buckshot in the chest from a riot gun." (6)
Though Jim speaks without drama about his family struggles, his directness helps us to see the magnitude of his life's misery. The physical violence suffered by Jim's father shows the littleness of any human; individual lives don't really matter in the harsh world Steinbeck describes. The fact that Jim feels deadened and resigned about his father's gruesome death speaks volumes about the lack of value placed on human suffering.
Quote #2
"She moved kind of like a machine, and she hardly ever said anything. Her eyes got kind of a dead look, too. But it made my old man mad. He had to fight everything with his fists. He went to work and beat the hell out of the foreman at the Monel packing house. Then he did ninety days for assault." (13-14)
Jim explains the change that came over his mother when his older sister disappeared. The loss of the young girl also marked the beginning of his father's decline into violent behavior. Jim knows that his mother's will to live left her at that moment, and this change in his mother explains the type of death she suffers later. There's no reasonable cause—just a kind of deadness that eventually takes over her whole life.
Quote #3
Mac explained, "Joy won't shake hands with anybody. Bones are all broken. It hurts Joy to shake hands."
The light flared in Joy's eyes again. "Why is it?" he cried shrilly. "'Cause I've been beat, that's why! I been handcuffed to a bar and beat over the head. I been stepped on by horses." (15)
Joy's physical suffering seems to have little impact on his spirit—or on his common sense, either. While his hurts have disfigured his small body, he hasn't changed his approach to helping the cause (never mind that he hasn't been so successful up to this point). Mac would like Joy to chill out so that he won't constantly have to be bailed out, but in the end, Joy's penchant for violence means that he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice without much fuss.