List one fact and one corresponding insight about life that we see through Muley and his life and relationships. Don't repeat someone else's answer. Keep digging below the surface for your analyses. Don't forget to sign your name.
After losing the farm, all of Muley’s family traveled to California in search of a better life except for him. Muley chose to stay behind without his family because of his stubbornness, hatred for the people who took his farm, and his pride. Muley states that “They ain’t gettin’ rid of me. If they throw me off, I’ll come back.” Muley is able to risk his life, and family because he does not want to give in to the pressure. The relationship Muley had with his father shows through when he states, “My pa came here fifty years ago. An’ I ain’t goin’.” I see this as Muley wishing to live up to his family’s expectations and dreams, by going to California he could possibly be losing one of the life-long goals he thought he was able to accomplish.
When Muley's family loses their farm, he stays behind while the rest of his family migrates west. Muley proceeds to ramage around the county trespassing and killing small animals in order to survive. During this adventure, Muley finds himself hiding from the authorities multiple times. Once while trying not to get caught, Muley says, "I was mean like a wolf. Now I'm mean like a weasel." It is revealed that Muley used to have the reputation of being outspoken. This represents the wolf. However, now, Muley is mean like a weasel in the sense that he is crafty and sly in order to stay around his property like he wants to do. Muley's situation can be related to other life situations because it is common for people to do whatever they foresee they need to do in order to get what they want in the end.
It seems to me that Muley is "playing uncle" with life. He's not going to give in until the situation improves, which puts him in hard times, most likely as well as his family in California. In life, one of the biggest lessons is picking your battles. This is not something Muley should fight, as he is not doing anything to change his situation. The sacrifices he's made for himself and his family aren't worth anything, if he's not going to fight to improve the situation. He is a real representation of people who stay with situations until the other side says "uncle!" which unfortunately for Muley, will never happen.
Muley chooses to stay when all of his family moves. A fact of life that is shown through him is people will do anything to get what they want. Even today people go to extremes to achieve the success that they have always dreamed of. Some people resort to murder some swindle others just do whatever it takes to survive.
Muley is a stubborn farmer who does not want to leave his land even though he has lost it all. Instead of being a real man and taking care of his family, he decides that the land that is no longer his is more important. He thinks it is more important to be hiding from the sheriff and being a “weasel” than to start a new life and make something of himself. He also talks too much and usually his points are unclear. There are many people like Muley today who decide to take care of things that are worthless, and leave out the things that are important, like family. What will happen when the sheriff finally catches Muley and puts him in jail? I think Muley is a person fighting for a cause that no longer exists.
Muley has been abandoned by his family because he refuses to leave his home behind. Muley says how he refuses to leave the land and how many memories he's hand there. The insight obtained from this is that sometimes people don't necessarily have their priorities straight. That they rather forsake things like family for objects that can't love them back.
Muley shows us that change is hard, and many people will change their entire lifestyle to avoid it. Muley changes from being a "hunter" to one of the "hunted". When Willy comes around with his flashlight, Muley usually would punch him. However, since he wants to have things remain as they were, he hides from Willy. To avoid a change in his environment by moving to a new place; Muley changes his personality to adapt. By trying to avoid change, change came.
Because Muley stays behind when his family has left, shows us that human beings dont want to leave what we have. We dont want memories to fade away, we dont want to have to give away what we worked so hard for. Humans just want life to be easy, but unfortunately, life is not easy, no matter how hard we try to make it so. Muley's stubbornness shows us that we can be pig headed and stubborn, but we can change. No matter how much we do not want to, but have to.
Muley shows us through his choice in staying behind while his loved ones moved away, that he feels that the injustice of the banks must be fought. This sugests that some things in life should be fought instead of being ran from. Muley must have had a strong connection with his father, because he stayed to fight for his fathers land, rather than go with his family.
When Joad spends the night with Muley, we find that Muley lives a desperate life. He must hunt for rabbits, jackrabbits, and the like, he must live in a cave, and he must drink as little water as possible. This shows that when times are hard, a human can resort to their primal instincts and survive. Specifically on that night, Joad tried to get Muley to sleep outside the cave, but Muley refused, explaining that he felt safer in cave. This may reflect that if civilization ever returns to that part of Oklahoma, he may not be able to assimilate back into society.
Even though Muley is stubborn enough to continue fighting for his land, he doesn't necessarily encourage Tom to do the same, instead he directs him to Uncle John's house, where the Joads are staying. This shows that even though Muley is stubborn, he respects Tom's autonomy and individual decisions. This relates back to life because it shows that Muley, although content with his own beliefs, didn't try to spread them to others. On a side note, I dont think that it was necessarily bad for Muley to leave his family, even though this might be a lost cause because he is alone in his fight, if more farmers would have rebelled, the problem could have been solved more quickly because it would have had more support and would have gained the interest of the general American public, even those not in the dust bowl area.
Muley's story shows the importance of family. Without his family he has lost his sanity. He would have lost his farm but if he would have gone with his family he could have stayed mentally sharp, at the expense of some pride. He stays to meet his fathers expectations but what about his wife's expectations? I'm sure his father would have been more proud of him to support his family rather than support the land he lost.
Muley's choice to continue living on the land of his youth shows us the drastic effect living alone can have on a person.
After his family moved to California, Muley adopted a lifestyle that constituted of meaninglessly wandering the area in which he used to live. The stress of living without human companionship, and the stress of constantly hiding from Sheriff Willy caused Muley to change from the outgoing prideful man he used to be into the sly, nervously talkative individual that he became. His change shows us how important human companionship truly is, and how living with out it can affect us.
Though Muley is staying to 'stick it to the man' in a sense, I think the real reason Muley is staying is because he is afraid of going. As Jessica quotes earlier, Muley says, "My pa came here fifty years ago. An' I ain't going'." This quote shows us the ultimate fear of the unknown like Molly also states. Moreover, this quote shows us that Muley has never had a life outside of this area and he cannot move on from this area. This insight is further supported later on in the novel when Mulley tells the Joad family that he knows that even if he agreed to come with them, he would back out at the last minute out of fear. This supports the fact about life that people sometimes get stuck doing something because they can't handle the idea of doing something else. Religion is an example of this. Some people are of the same denomination as their parents and have just left it at that becasue it has always been that way. In this example, people may not choose to stay in that situation out of fear, but more out of discomfort with unfamiliar territory.
One of my favorite quotes seems to relate to Muley as a character who resists change with a passion. "Insanity is repeating the same actions but expecting different results." By refusing to move with his family, Muley is staying with the farm to do the same old things he has every other day of his life. The only problem is that Muley has no one to depend, has nothing left to salvage on his farm (seeing as the dust bowl has gutted out his land), and is forced to hide from authorities on a daily basis. His 'insanity' is that inability to become fluid enough to accept and embrace a change. Muley forgets that it is okay to deviate a bit from the past and try something new. Too bad Muley represents a large percentage of the attitudes of the people of today.
In the Transition of life between being a citizen and a farmer to becoming a hiding outcast Muley transforms from the hunter into the hunted. Being the hunted, Muley changes into a timid, over-cautious, panicky man. This is true in life in that when we run from our problems we too must change into a timid, over-cautious, panicky person even though by running we are often trying not to change.
Because of his fearful and stubborn qualities, Muley is left behind by his family to aimlessly roam the former fields of his former neighbors. His staying behind represents the impact of "safety zones" in life. No matter how difficult their current situation is, some people would much rather cling to what they know than throw it all away for something better. For example, if someone is employed for a company who treates employees unfairly and doesn't provide a positive working environment, we can assume that they would find a new, better job somewhere else. But in some cases, people will remain in the miserable conditions because they are too afraid of starting over somewhere new. Learning new rules, meeting new people, and adjusting to new procedures are more intimidating than staying where they are comfortable and acquainted. In Muley's case, living alone as the hunted on the only land he has ever known is less of a challenge than moving to California to find a fresh start.
Muley is now a fugitive on his own land, being searched for by local law enforcement because of the need to get farmers off of their land. Muley is proud of his land, and too proud to get off of it, or so he claims. In the book we see that Muley is not in fact standing up for anything. He is running away, just in a much smaller circumference than going to California. If he really wanted to stand up and be proud he would be on his front porch with a shotgun, standing tall. He would be defending his dignity, instead of lowering it. By being the "hunted," his dignity has been lowered significantly.
Muley does not have much. He makes himself content with the things he does have. Because he has never had all that much, he is fine with the little he does own. As far as a relationships he cares about whats in the past over present. He choses to hold on to the past and be a coward.
Muley has been living off the land ever since his family left him behind to go to California. He hides from the bankers when they go searching for people who have stayed behind on their land. He has no real home and has lost everything that has meant anything to him.
Looking through Muleys eyes I see regret. I can't imagine letting my family go because I was to stuborn to go with them. Muley is lonely and confused. He has no sense of direction. His life is pointless without his family. Life revolves around your family, especially back in the Dust Bowl era. Family is all that they had.
Muley said if he hadn't been told to pack up and leave, he probably would have joined his family in California. In life, people don't enjoy being pushed around and told what to do. Muley is a prime example of this. Just to prove, perhaps to himself, that he could not be told what to do, he remains on his land and abandons his family in California.
(I did not have the time or patience to read all of your comments so forgive me if I am repeating) Muley is poster child for one of the human condition's darker universal truths. A man left to his thoughts will lose control of them. All his years of solitude have left him less than a man. He descend into a lower form of being, a "weasel" as the book describes. Lonliness and neglect are the culprits of the downfall of Muley's wretched soul.
Muley wanted us to believe that he was trying to stand up for himself, and save what land he could. The land supposedly meant a lot to him because it was his fathers, but realistically he was simply running from his problems. Think of a young child hiding under his covers because he heard a noise in the hallway in the middle of the night. Instead of getting up to go to the bathroom like he had planned he lies there terrified under the blanket.
Muley is in the same situation. His family is read to move on to a new adventure, and a new beginning. This mystery of the future frightens Muley causing him to stay behind hiding within his land from the outside world just as the child hid under his covers. Nothing can hurt you if you keep running, or atleast that is what Muley believes.
Though, as Kyle mentioned, Muley does show primal instinct by surviving in the only ways possible: eating jackrabbits and rodents, living in a cave instead of a house, and drinking only miniscule amounts of water, he still shows an ounce of pride and humility when Tom Joad suggested that they reside at Muley's house for the evening. Muley was conscious of the fact that Joad knew he was struggling beyond the point of financially, which was the issue of most families at the time, and had hitten the point of wrestling with simple survival, but he still acted genuinely embarrassed. To be honest, Muley's "primal instinct" was simply a facade covering his pride and his humiliation.
Muley chooses to stay behind after his family moved to California. He does this mainly out of hatred for the corporal world, and because of his pride. This shows us that Muley is willing to fight for what is his by right, and to protect his livelihood.
In life, it is when we are forced to do something that makes us not want to. Muley said if he would have been able to make the decision on his own, he may have up and moved to California, but because he was being forced off the land he and his relatives had worked so hard to build up, he refused to give in. Unfortunately, the fact that he could not give in and move away with his family ends up causing him more grief. Once a man staying for a prideful purpose, turned into a man who constantly breaks the law and continues to do as he pleases, but now he does it alone. Because of his stubborn inability to accept change, he will live the rest of his life without his family and the things that really matter in life.
I think Muley and Grandpa Joad are very alike because Muley's family lost their land and all moved to California but Muley felt like he was born and raised there so it was HIS land. The land was more important to him than his family and friends and he is willing to die on the land alone. I think he was very stubborn and uncalled for.
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After losing the farm, all of Muley’s family traveled to California in search of a better life except for him.
Muley chose to stay behind without his family because of his stubbornness, hatred for the people who took his farm, and his pride. Muley states that “They ain’t gettin’ rid of me. If they throw me off, I’ll come back.” Muley is able to risk his life, and family because he does not want to give in to the pressure. The relationship Muley had with his father shows through when he states, “My pa came here fifty years ago. An’ I ain’t goin’.” I see this as Muley wishing to live up to his family’s expectations and dreams, by going to California he could possibly be losing one of the life-long goals he thought he was able to accomplish.
When Muley's family loses their farm, he stays behind while the rest of his family migrates west. Muley proceeds to ramage around the county trespassing and killing small animals in order to survive. During this adventure, Muley finds himself hiding from the authorities multiple times. Once while trying not to get caught, Muley says, "I was mean like a wolf. Now I'm mean like a weasel." It is revealed that Muley used to have the reputation of being outspoken. This represents the wolf. However, now, Muley is mean like a weasel in the sense that he is crafty and sly in order to stay around his property like he wants to do. Muley's situation can be related to other life situations because it is common for people to do whatever they foresee they need to do in order to get what they want in the end.
It seems to me that Muley is "playing uncle" with life. He's not going to give in until the situation improves, which puts him in hard times, most likely as well as his family in California. In life, one of the biggest lessons is picking your battles. This is not something Muley should fight, as he is not doing anything to change his situation. The sacrifices he's made for himself and his family aren't worth anything, if he's not going to fight to improve the situation. He is a real representation of people who stay with situations until the other side says "uncle!" which unfortunately for Muley, will never happen.
Muley chooses to stay when all of his family moves. A fact of life that is shown through him is people will do anything to get what they want. Even today people go to extremes to achieve the success that they have always dreamed of. Some people resort to murder some swindle others just do whatever it takes to survive.
Muley is a stubborn farmer who does not want to leave his land even though he has lost it all. Instead of being a real man and taking care of his family, he decides that the land that is no longer his is more important. He thinks it is more important to be hiding from the sheriff and being a “weasel” than to start a new life and make something of himself. He also talks too much and usually his points are unclear. There are many people like Muley today who decide to take care of things that are worthless, and leave out the things that are important, like family. What will happen when the sheriff finally catches Muley and puts him in jail? I think Muley is a person fighting for a cause that no longer exists.
Muley has been abandoned by his family because he refuses to leave his home behind. Muley says how he refuses to leave the land and how many memories he's hand there. The insight obtained from this is that sometimes people don't necessarily have their priorities straight. That they rather forsake things like family for objects that can't love them back.
Muley shows us that change is hard, and many people will change their entire lifestyle to avoid it. Muley changes from being a "hunter" to one of the "hunted". When Willy comes around with his flashlight, Muley usually would punch him. However, since he wants to have things remain as they were, he hides from Willy. To avoid a change in his environment by moving to a new place; Muley changes his personality to adapt. By trying to avoid change, change came.
Because Muley stays behind when his family has left, shows us that human beings dont want to leave what we have. We dont want memories to fade away, we dont want to have to give away what we worked so hard for. Humans just want life to be easy, but unfortunately, life is not easy, no matter how hard we try to make it so. Muley's stubbornness shows us that we can be pig headed and stubborn, but we can change. No matter how much we do not want to, but have to.
Muley shows us through his choice in staying behind while his loved ones moved away, that he feels that the injustice of the banks must be fought. This sugests that some things in life should be fought instead of being ran from. Muley must have had a strong connection with his father, because he stayed to fight for his fathers land, rather than go with his family.
When Joad spends the night with Muley, we find that Muley lives a desperate life. He must hunt for rabbits, jackrabbits, and the like, he must live in a cave, and he must drink as little water as possible. This shows that when times are hard, a human can resort to their primal instincts and survive. Specifically on that night, Joad tried to get Muley to sleep outside the cave, but Muley refused, explaining that he felt safer in cave. This may reflect that if civilization ever returns to that part of Oklahoma, he may not be able to assimilate back into society.
Even though Muley is stubborn enough to continue fighting for his land, he doesn't necessarily encourage Tom to do the same, instead he directs him to Uncle John's house, where the Joads are staying. This shows that even though Muley is stubborn, he respects Tom's autonomy and individual decisions. This relates back to life because it shows that Muley, although content with his own beliefs, didn't try to spread them to others. On a side note, I dont think that it was necessarily bad for Muley to leave his family, even though this might be a lost cause because he is alone in his fight, if more farmers would have rebelled, the problem could have been solved more quickly because it would have had more support and would have gained the interest of the general American public, even those not in the dust bowl area.
Muley's story shows the importance of family. Without his family he has lost his sanity. He would have lost his farm but if he would have gone with his family he could have stayed mentally sharp, at the expense of some pride. He stays to meet his fathers expectations but what about his wife's expectations? I'm sure his father would have been more proud of him to support his family rather than support the land he lost.
Muley's choice to continue living on the land of his youth shows us the drastic effect living alone can have on a person.
After his family moved to California, Muley adopted a lifestyle that constituted of meaninglessly wandering the area in which he used to live. The stress of living without human companionship, and the stress of constantly hiding from Sheriff Willy caused Muley to change from the outgoing prideful man he used to be into the sly, nervously talkative individual that he became. His change shows us how important human companionship truly is, and how living with out it can affect us.
Though Muley is staying to 'stick it to the man' in a sense, I think the real reason Muley is staying is because he is afraid of going. As Jessica quotes earlier, Muley says, "My pa came here fifty years ago. An' I ain't going'." This quote shows us the ultimate fear of the unknown like Molly also states. Moreover, this quote shows us that Muley has never had a life outside of this area and he cannot move on from this area. This insight is further supported later on in the novel when Mulley tells the Joad family that he knows that even if he agreed to come with them, he would back out at the last minute out of fear. This supports the fact about life that people sometimes get stuck doing something because they can't handle the idea of doing something else. Religion is an example of this. Some people are of the same denomination as their parents and have just left it at that becasue it has always been that way. In this example, people may not choose to stay in that situation out of fear, but more out of discomfort with unfamiliar territory.
One of my favorite quotes seems to relate to Muley as a character who resists change with a passion. "Insanity is repeating the same actions but expecting different results." By refusing to move with his family, Muley is staying with the farm to do the same old things he has every other day of his life. The only problem is that Muley has no one to depend, has nothing left to salvage on his farm (seeing as the dust bowl has gutted out his land), and is forced to hide from authorities on a daily basis. His 'insanity' is that inability to become fluid enough to accept and embrace a change. Muley forgets that it is okay to deviate a bit from the past and try something new. Too bad Muley represents a large percentage of the attitudes of the people of today.
In the Transition of life between being a citizen and a farmer to becoming a hiding outcast Muley transforms from the hunter into the hunted. Being the hunted, Muley changes into a timid, over-cautious, panicky man. This is true in life in that when we run from our problems we too must change into a timid, over-cautious, panicky person even though by running we are often trying not to change.
Because of his fearful and stubborn qualities, Muley is left behind by his family to aimlessly roam the former fields of his former neighbors. His staying behind represents the impact of "safety zones" in life. No matter how difficult their current situation is, some people would much rather cling to what they know than throw it all away for something better. For example, if someone is employed for a company who treates employees unfairly and doesn't provide a positive working environment, we can assume that they would find a new, better job somewhere else. But in some cases, people will remain in the miserable conditions because they are too afraid of starting over somewhere new. Learning new rules, meeting new people, and adjusting to new procedures are more intimidating than staying where they are comfortable and acquainted. In Muley's case, living alone as the hunted on the only land he has ever known is less of a challenge than moving to California to find a fresh start.
Muley is now a fugitive on his own land, being searched for by local law enforcement because of the need to get farmers off of their land. Muley is proud of his land, and too proud to get off of it, or so he claims. In the book we see that Muley is not in fact standing up for anything. He is running away, just in a much smaller circumference than going to California. If he really wanted to stand up and be proud he would be on his front porch with a shotgun, standing tall. He would be defending his dignity, instead of lowering it. By being the "hunted," his dignity has been lowered significantly.
Muley does not have much. He makes himself content with the things he does have. Because he has never had all that much, he is fine with the little he does own. As far as a relationships he cares about whats in the past over present. He choses to hold on to the past and be a coward.
Muley has been living off the land ever since his family left him behind to go to California. He hides from the bankers when they go searching for people who have stayed behind on their land. He has no real home and has lost everything that has meant anything to him.
Looking through Muleys eyes I see regret. I can't imagine letting my family go because I was to stuborn to go with them. Muley is lonely and confused. He has no sense of direction. His life is pointless without his family. Life revolves around your family, especially back in the Dust Bowl era. Family is all that they had.
Muley said if he hadn't been told to pack up and leave, he probably would have joined his family in California. In life, people don't enjoy being pushed around and told what to do. Muley is a prime example of this. Just to prove, perhaps to himself, that he could not be told what to do, he remains on his land and abandons his family in California.
(I did not have the time or patience to read all of your comments so forgive me if I am repeating)
Muley is poster child for one of the human condition's darker universal truths. A man left to his thoughts will lose control of them. All his years of solitude have left him less than a man. He descend into a lower form of being, a "weasel" as the book describes. Lonliness and neglect are the culprits of the downfall of Muley's wretched soul.
Muley wanted us to believe that he was trying to stand up for himself, and save what land he could. The land supposedly meant a lot to him because it was his fathers, but realistically he was simply running from his problems. Think of a young child hiding under his covers because he heard a noise in the hallway in the middle of the night. Instead of getting up to go to the bathroom like he had planned he lies there terrified under the blanket.
Muley is in the same situation. His family is read to move on to a new adventure, and a new beginning. This mystery of the future frightens Muley causing him to stay behind hiding within his land from the outside world just as the child hid under his covers. Nothing can hurt you if you keep running, or atleast that is what Muley believes.
Though, as Kyle mentioned, Muley does show primal instinct by surviving in the only ways possible: eating jackrabbits and rodents, living in a cave instead of a house, and drinking only miniscule amounts of water, he still shows an ounce of pride and humility when Tom Joad suggested that they reside at Muley's house for the evening. Muley was conscious of the fact that Joad knew he was struggling beyond the point of financially, which was the issue of most families at the time, and had hitten the point of wrestling with simple survival, but he still acted genuinely embarrassed. To be honest, Muley's "primal instinct" was simply a facade covering his pride and his humiliation.
Muley chooses to stay behind after his family moved to California. He does this mainly out of hatred for the corporal world, and because of his pride. This shows us that Muley is willing to fight for what is his by right, and to protect his livelihood.
In life, it is when we are forced to do something that makes us not want to. Muley said if he would have been able to make the decision on his own, he may have up and moved to California, but because he was being forced off the land he and his relatives had worked so hard to build up, he refused to give in. Unfortunately, the fact that he could not give in and move away with his family ends up causing him more grief. Once a man staying for a prideful purpose, turned into a man who constantly breaks the law and continues to do as he pleases, but now he does it alone. Because of his stubborn inability to accept change, he will live the rest of his life without his family and the things that really matter in life.
I think Muley and Grandpa Joad are very alike because Muley's family lost their land and all moved to California but Muley felt like he was born and raised there so it was HIS land. The land was more important to him than his family and friends and he is willing to die on the land alone. I think he was very stubborn and uncalled for.
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