Dalton Trumbo uses Joe's description of his father's garden as a figure to show his nostalgia towards the old, subsistence farming way of living and his discontent with the capitalist system. Joe's father does not make money off of his garden, and makes very little from his day job, but harvests enough out of it to feed his family quite well. Chapter 9 explains Joe's family's financial situation and displays Joe's, and therefore the author's, dissatisfaction with the capitalist system and a nostalgia for a more pastoral system. If their system were set up under an organization of subsistence, Joe's father would be a resounding success, as he grows enough food for his family to not go hungry. Joe's father is only a failure because a capitalistic