East of Eden XXX -- chpt29: JUST CALL ME JOE!

Is it so wrong to over-read a passage--to look too deeply?  I don't think so, and this is why:  as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't always matter what an author intended.  It matters much more what is there, rather than why it's there.  There are such things as accidental and incidental works of art.  So take this together with the notion that even if Steinbeck didn't intend metaphor by the carved head as cage for a fly, or the rabbit shot through the heart, or, here in chapter 29, the car, it doesn't change the fact that metaphor may be found, and metaphor pertinent to the conflict and characters.  I think the ends--the presence of metaphor or allegory or art--justify the means and/or the author's lack of intent. 

That said...

Reading Questions
Chapter 29.1

1. Will brings Adam's car, and it's a mess of complications.  Now as long as you can at least partially separate yourself from Tolkein's antagonism toward the Industrial Age, you should be able to recognize Adam's purchase of a car as a sign of progress--he's stepping, rather blindly of course, into the new age.  In order to make the analytic leap I'm looking for though, let's look at this in terms of analogy (THIS kind of analogy: apple is to fruit as herring is to fish, or apple : fruit :: herring : fish).  So here's my analogy, with its requisite blank.  Please fill in the blank and explain your answer.  Adam's advancement into technology : car :: Adam's new life and finally-assumed fatherhood : ______________.  (Okay, so yeah, I know this is WAY abstract.)

Chapter 29.2

1. Lee: "I wonder whether I'll ever get used to it."  I've heard it said that one can get used to anything--generally in context of extreme crimes, as some reporter or analyst attempts to explain away the astounding lengths to which humanity manages to push its actions and psyche.  Are there things that an individual--specifically you or someone you know perhaps--will indeed never get used to?
2. I love Joe, or Roy--or, rather, I Just-Call-Me-Joe.  I love that Steinbeck so totally throws in a hackneyed stereotype.  There's been so much heaviness lately that we need it, I think.  (And Lee's sarcasm...!)