of what importance is Muley in this story? whats the difference between being the hunter and being the hunted?

Muley is the hold out. He refuses to leave the land which he has been evicted from. He is a ghost, "a barnyard ghost". Muley represents the futility of these sharecroppers. He is the stubborn farmer who can't leave his land simply because a piece of paper says it is not his. Muley, of course, is being sought after by the authorities. I suppose Muley is being hunted but they are really hunting a shell of a man, virtually a ghost.