How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #4
Joy had stopped, his eyes wide. His mouth flew open and a jet of blood rolled down his chin, and down his shirt. His eyes ranged wildly over the crowd of men. He fell on his face and clawed outward with his fingers. The guards stared unbelievingly at the squirming figure on the ground. (128)
Joy's gruesome assassination at the train depot highlights the expendability of human life in this work. Joy himself had great zeal for the cause and set the value of his life at almost nothing in the face of his work. Even his comrades in arms didn't think much of Joy's suffering—it was just the byproduct of his irrational tendencies and his love of scrapping with the law. But his unexpected and unlooked-for martyrdom counts tremendously because it is shocking and perfectly timed. The drama of the death of the little man stirs public sympathy and riles the workers—at least for a minute.
Quote #5
Mac turned angrily on him. "Listen, mister, we know you got a sock in the teeth; little guys like you and me get it all the time. We're tryin' to make it so guys like you won't get it." (134)
Anderson rightly complains about his son's losses, but Mac has no problem pushing back. The cause is too righteous and valuable. Throughout the book, both Mac and Jim lament the difficulty of getting the average man to understand the value of working for something bigger, something that will benefit an entire country rather than just one individual. At the moment, Mac's anger seems justified: what's the sacrifice of a crummy lunch wagon and a few broken ribs compared to fair wages and improved working conditions for everyone? It seems like a no-brainer—until worse things begin to happen.
Quote #6
"How's it feel to be a Party man now, Jim? It's swell when you read about it—romantic. Ladies like to get up and squawk about the 'boss class' and the 'downtrodden working man.' It's a heavy weight, Jim. That poor guy. The lunch wagon looks bigger than the world to him." (135)
Mac pontificates on the reality of sacrifice in the service of an ideology. It's all grins and giggles, he says, until a business gets burned to the ground and people get beaten. While things are about to get even worse for the Andersons, Mac reminds himself (and Jim and the reader) that sometimes we have to look past our own comfort for the greater good, no matter how hard it can be. Problem is, Mac and Jim are guys with nothing to lose. They might feel sympathy for the Andersons, but they don't feel the loss with them.