Johnny Got his Gun :: Essays Papers

Johnny Got his GunWhen I first started reading Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo, I thought it would be more direct in its description of World War I. However, the entire novel takes place in one American soldiers hospital bed. His name is Joe. He no arms, legs, or face, and he is deaf. Rendered this way after an explosive shell hit him, he has no way to communicate with the world.Joe dreams throughout the novel, mostly about his memories, and because of this, a great deal of the book is disjointed and contains a dreamlike quality. Through his dreams, I well-educated about Joes life before the war. I learned he lost his father fairly young, and about his boyhood romances. Joe worked at the railroad, and at a bakery. Before he left for the war, he had a girlfriend named Kareen who I believe he wanted to marry.When Joe is awake, he at first is unaware of his injuries. He realizes he is deaf, but he goes through several stages of denial and adoption for his physical featur es. He thinks his face is only swathed in bandages, not gone. He thinks the doctors are injecting drugs into the heel of his hand, not the stub that was his arm. Only when Joe realizes hes lose his arms and legs and face, does he realize the full extent of his situation.Joe doesnt even know where he is, though he speculates that he could be in England, France, or possibly America. Joe knows that if his arms and legs didnt make it through the shell blast that nearly killed him, his dog tags certainly didnt. He knows hell never see his babe or mother, or Kareen, his girlfriend, again. Hell never even know where he is.Joe learns to tell time by how often the nurses come. He first figures out when morning is by the warming of the suns rays on his skin. He then keeps count of how often the day and night nurses come between two dawns. When Joe eventually gets it right (it takes several tries) he feels as though hes regained some sort of connection with the rest of the world.A fter five years, Joe is given a medal of honor for his efforts and losses in the war.