Technology
We all love technology, right? It lets you do things like go on Shmoop. What's not to love?Well, okay: there totally are things not to love about technology, and maybe that's why a lot of us have a...
The Good Ol' Days
The flipside of technology is what we're going to call the "Good Ol' Days"—you know, that blissful time before technology, when all people did was lie in grass and eat strawberries, without a car...
The Fishing Rod
We could get all Freudian, but we're going to focus another way the fishing rod is symbolic: it stands for Joe's relationship with his father.First things first. When Joe breaks the news to his dad...
The Rat
Ah, the rat. Even though he likes to eat, he's not the fat and friendly kind (yes, we just ruined Ratatouille for you forever):It didn't matter whether the rat was gnawing on your buddy or a damned...
Christ
Okay, folks, it's about to get real, because we're talking about the big J.C. here.Yes, we know: Christ is, like, Western literature's all-purpose symbol (unless he's literally in the story, playin...
Lazarus
Did you notice how Trumbo organizes the novel around two parts called "The Living" and "The Dead"? We're going to go out on a limb here (pun intended) and say these categories are pretty important...
The Body
How can you not pay attention to Joe's body? We probably feel the way a lot of Joe's nurses do: maybe we're compelled to stare, or maybe we want to be sick, or maybe we want run out of the room and...
The Little Guys
Ladies and gentlemen, let's talk about Marxism.In a really, really concise nutshell, Marxism argues that society, instead of being organized according to who has the most money (or "capital"), shou...