How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
"He always got the hell beat out of him. He used to come home all covered with blood. He'd sit beside the cook stove. We had to let him alone then. Couldn't even speak to him or he'd cry. When my mother washed him later, he'd whine like a dog." (7)
Jim tells Harry Nilson about the violent life of his father. Nilson wants to know if Jim will be as wild—or perhaps as willing to scrap—as his dad. But Jim doesn't just reveal his father's need for violent confrontation. He also shows the real toll that anger and hatred take on a person after the venting ends. Jim also points out that his dad's violent streak had no purpose or direction: it all pointed inward and destroyed him.
Quote #2
"They had to break his jaw with a night stick to stop him; then they threw him in the can. Well, I don't know how Joy did much talking with a busted jaw, but he must have worked on the doctor in the jail some, 'cause the doctor said he wouldn't treat a God-damn red, and Joy lay there three full days with a broken jaw. He's been screwy ever since." (18)
Mac gives Jim a quick overview of old Joy's career with the Party. Joy doesn't have talent for rhetoric or for reasoning, for that matter. Joy's main goal in life (as we see in the character Sam later in the book) is to use his fists to show the world the corruption and injustice of the socio-economic system in America. He wouldn't say it like that, of course. He'd just punch your lights out.
This passage points out another, silent type of violence: hatred for fellow men. Doctors take an oath to remember the humanity of their patients. Joy's encounter with the jail doc proves that some are willing to allow suffering in support of a political agenda.
Quote #3
The old man shook his head. "I hope I'm dead before it happens. They'll be bitin' out throats with their teeth. They'll kill each other off an' after they're all wore out or dead, it'll be the same thing over again. I want to die and get shut of it." (53)
Old Dan tells Jim that he wants nothing to do with agitation and striking. He knows that it brings out the worst in both sides, and he's pretty sure he's lived too long to see more of this. So far in the book, nothing like this has really happened. But Dan's own accident will prove that it doesn't take much to set discontented men on a path to destruction.