How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Only when you're deaf you're lonesome. You're godforsaken. (1.30)
Joe has no idea how bad it's actually going to get. Trumbo describes how Joe discovers his injuries one at a time in order to build tension and give each injury its due. Going deaf? That's totally awful. Losing your left arm? Also totally awful. And your right arm? And your legs? And your jaw? And your eyes? Your whole face? Somehow, it's more frightening to hear about these injuries one by one than to get them all at once—sort of like how it can be more frightening to get the details one of individual soldier's death than to hear about impersonal statistics.
Quote #2
No matter how far you are separated from other people if you have an idea of time why then you are in the same world with them you are part of them but if you lose time the others go ahead of you and you are left alone hanging in air lost to everything forever. (11.9)
Joe is so alone in the world that he will take any little thing he can get. But why does learning how to measure time become such an important part of the plot? What does it do for our relationship with Joe?
Quote #3
It was more of a panic it was the panicky dread of losing yourself even from yourself. It made him a little sick at his stomach. (11.11)
Joe is wondering how much time he has lost. All this emphasis on how reality has been blurred and on how little Joe has to anchor himself to it (remember his nightmares of the rat?) helps show the extent of his imprisonment. He doesn't even have the luxury of scratching out days on the wall of his cell. He barely even knows when it's day or night.