How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
MARTIN: Well, how come you didn't know each other until high school then?
EDDIE: He had two separate lives. That's how come. Two completely separate lives. He'd live with me and my mother for a while and then he'd disappear and go live with her and her mother for a while.
THE OLD MAN: Now don't be too hard on me, boy. It can happen to the best of us. (495-497)
It's possible the Old Man has a kind of "boys will be boys" attitude about his cheating and bigamy. At the very least, he seems to think that it's just something that someone could accidentally fall into pretty easily.
Quote #8
"Now, wait a second! Wait a second. Just a goddamn second here. This story doesn't hold water. (To EDDIE, who stays seated) You're not gonna' let her off the hook with that one are ya'? That's the dumbest version I ever heard in my whole life. She never blew her brains out. Nobody ever told me that. Where the hell did that come from? (to EDDIE, who remains seated) Stand up! Get on yer feet now goddammit! I wanna' hear the male side a' this thing. You gotta' represent me now. Speak on my behalf. There's no one to speak for me now! Stand up!" (556)
The Old Man thinks he needs another man to help defend his behavior toward Eddie and May's mothers—since apparently only another man/male perspective could help to "represent" the particular choices that he made?
Quote #9
"Stay away from her! What the hell are you doin'? Keep away from her! You two can't come together! You gotta' hold up my end a' this deal. I got nobody now! Nobody! You can't betray me! You gotta' represent me now! You're my son!" (566)
Again, the Old Man always appeals to Eddie as a potential ally (instead of May) because they are both men—which apparently, in his view, would make Eddie more understanding of his choices and sympathetic to his views. In short, he thinks they share the same ideas about what kind of behavior is within the range of normal manly stuff.