How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Things weren't going well and they never would have gone well for you and it's just as good you're dead. People've got to be quicker and harder these days than you were dad. (1.14)
Harsh, Joe. Harsh. We don't learn until later why Joe is being so hard on his dad, but we'll spoil it for you here: Joe thinks his dad didn't make enough money, and he thinks that his dad was a failure because of that. At this point, Joe's thinking in materialistic terms, and this is the kind of thinking (or a side effect of the kind of thinking) that Trumbo thinks promotes war (since war, in his mind, is primarily about power and money for the big guys).
Quote #2
The guys from the Mission came stinking of disinfectant and looking very bedraggled and embarrassed. They knew that anyone who smelled the disinfectant knew they were bums on charity. They didn't like that and how could you blame them? They were always humble and when they were bright enough they worked hard. Some of them weren't bright. (6.2)
It's a little hard to tell what Joe's attitude toward these people is—that is, whether he's being sympathetic, harsh, or simply lamenting inequality. Why does Trumbo include this scene at all? How are the "bums on charity" related to the overarching theme of war and its causes?
Quote #3
It didn't matter whether the rat was gnawing on your buddy or a damned German it was all the same. Your real enemy was the rat and when you saw it there fat and well fed chewing on something that might be you why you went nuts. (7.29)
The idea of someone else growing fat off of other people's suffering is a metaphor here for the people who stand to make financial gains off of war, though it's never explicitly stated who exactly that refers to. Here, Joe refigures who the real enemy is: not the opposing side, but the ones who orchestrate wars in the first place. This idea returns at the very end of the novel, as well.