As an Italian himself, Joe is obviously resentful of the fact that Abendsen makes Italian betrayal the focal point of
Grasshopper’s plot. Moreover, Joe sees little use in art (whereas Juliana is immediately fascinated by it). In referencing the real-world British dream of a global empire, the novel suggests that the Allies have more in common with the Axis power than they would like to admit. Britain hoped to have so much territory that there would always be daylight in one of its colonies (to be “the empire on which the sun never sets”). The Nazis, in other words, were not the only people with dreams of world takeover.