How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Little guys all over the world shot drowned stabbed crucified boiled in oil whipped to death burned at the stake—all these things were the fate of slaves the fate of the little guy the fate of men like himself. (15.6)
Okay, wait. Why are we talking about people being burned at the stake and boiled in oil in a World War I novel? Why are the little guys slaves? It's probably because Joe is suggesting that the little guys have been around throughout history—as slaves, witches, servants, and so on—and they've always been the ones to suffer when the big guys ask them to. If those were the little guys of the past, who are they in Joe's time? How about in our own time?
Quote #8
Away off in Rome a man in a palace stirred in his sleep. He almost awakened and then drowsed off again wondering in his dreams why he was nervous. (17.31)
In the biblical sense, Christ was something of a threat to the Roman Empire ("the Man" of the B.C.E.'s), as he represented a "little guy" who challenged their might and authority. Think about this in relation to what Joe says at the end of the novel about seeing himself as a new kind of Christ (20.28). Who might be the Roman emperor in this metaphor?
Quote #9
Remember it well we we we are the world we are what makes it go round we make bread and cloth and guns we are the hub of the wheel and the spokes and the wheel itself without us you would be hungry naked worms and we will not die. (20.30)
That's three "we's" (count 'em, folks), so Trumbo is clearly trying to establish some kind of solidarity with us, the readers. Why do you think he's so keen on pointing to the working class as the class that ultimately has the most at stake?