is muley making a stand against what is wrong while he is alone. why?

Muley calls himself a "barnyard ghost". While the others have left, he stays lurking around the empty shacks and barns. Muley explains that the land is all he has that validates him as a man. Muley tells Tom and Casy that the loss of the farm broke up his family ­ his wife and kids went off to California, while Muley chose to stay. He has been forced to eat wild game. He muses about how angry he was when he was told he had to get off the land. First he wanted to kill people, but then his family left and Muley was left alone and wandering.