How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #7
"... No, I don't think we have a chance to win it. This valley's organized. They'll start shooting, and they'll get away with it. We haven't a chance. I figure these guys here'll probably start deserting as soon as much trouble starts. But you don't want to worry about that, Jim. The thing will carry on and on. It'll spread, and some day—it'll work. Some day we'll win. We've got to believe that." (121)
While Mac waffles about their chances of success, he's beginning to see the reality of the situation. But he knows that both he and Jim will have to move on to another lost cause pretty soon; they can't get personally attached to a local fight like this. The most important thing is to recognize that local defeat does not mean the end of the larger movement: workers will continue to struggle all over the country, and the balance of probability dictates that something good will come out of it at some point. It's a vague hope, but it's really all they've got.
Quote #8
"It seems to me that mankind has engaged in a blind and fearful struggle out of a past he can't remember, into a future he can't foresee nor understand. And man has met and defeated every obstacle, every enemy except one. He cannot win over himself. How mankind hates itself." (199)
Doc philosophizes to Jim, who really doesn't have much use or patience for Doc's "high falutin'" ideas. But Doc brings up an important point, something that Mac articulates in a slightly different way throughout the work: man is his own worst enemy. He neither knows where he comes from nor what his purpose in the world might be, or even how to get along with others in society. This is the ultimate test for mankind and the biggest obstacle for workers and Growers alike: to admit that the "other" really is just one of us. And, to quote Bono, it's hugely important for us to realize that "there is no them."
Quote #9
"I'm scared they've got us now," Mac said. "They took the heart out of the guys before they could get going." He lay down on the mattress. "What they need is blood," he muttered. "A mob's got to kill something." (244)
Mac's chilling solution to a depressing observation tells us that the movement has hit rock bottom. If we take the body count at this point—Joy (dead); Dan, Jim, Burke, several workers, the Andersons, and possibly Doc (all injured); and some of the Growers (some killed, some injured)—a lot of blood has already been spilled, to no avail. The workers came to the fight without much fight in them, starting from a place far below their opponents. It seems that no amount of blood can rile them enough to make significant headway toward their goal.