Johnny got his gun is about a troubled man that joins the army to serve his country and to prove something to his father who has recently died. I find it very interesting that instead of mourning his death, he is going to fight in the war. I had hoped that Johnny would be ok when he joined the army but just like many others, the army had ruined Johnny’s life. One day he was in battle and mistakenly uncovered a landmine and was blown into pieces. What was left of his body was lying on the floor when he was recovered by a medical officer and bandaged up, they took him to a hospital room and put him to sleep so he wouldn’t be in pain anymore. It was mortifying to see what war does to ones self, Johnny lays there on a hospital table just realizing that the contact with the landmine forced the doctors to amputate all of his limbs. They even figured that he was in a coma so WHY even keep him alive. I would put him out of his misery.
I'm pretty sure it was an artillery shell that hit his "bomb proof trench" and took him out, and the shrapnel mangled his body beyond repair. But yes, lying limbless in a hospital bed could ruin your life, although there is opportunity to expand your mind. Some monks spend their entire live sitting with their able bodies perfectly still and meditate for hours on end. He thinks he needs to spend all his time thinking because his brain is pretty much all he has left, but he hasn't tried not thinking at all.
Most of the times we don't appreciate the things we have. While reading about Joe laying in a hospital bed and not being able to do anything is terrible. He's pretty much hopeless, alone in a place where even the smallest footsteps are a sign that he's still alive. I hope he gets better, even though it seems impossible right now.
I agree with you Corey, I think that Joe should also be put out of his misery. Who wants to live with only the thoughts in your head, with no way of expressing them.. Its not living! He is hardly surviving..
Joe Bonham lies injured in a hospital bed. While conscious, Joe thinks back over scenes from his past: the night of his fathers death and the night before he left his girlfriend Kareen to go to World War I. Before his family moved to Los Angeles, Joe grew up in Shale City, a small town in Colorado. Joe continues to live inside of his head, reliving memories and being terrorized by nightmares. He wonders how he can even tell whether he is awake or asleep. Joe is gravely injured from a land mine. He has no arms, no legs, no hearing and no ability to see or talk. In one of Joe's memories, he remembers chasing and killing a rat that was eating a dead mans face. Joe then begins to have a nightmare about the rat eating his own face before realizing that it was all just a dream. This scene to me is gruesome and disgusting, but i still love this book so far, and i do not think it should be banned anywhere..
I share your thoughts on the fact that this book shouldn't be banned because its a great book showing the faults and casualties of war. Its terrible what war does but you shouldn't punish the author of a book that is just telling the truth and explaining the risks of war. I also was just wondering why you didn't bring up the condition that Joe is in, because he not only lays in the hospital bed hurt, but torn limb from limb after what happened with the landmine. Its essential to fully understanding Joe's pain and suffering.
When you spend over a year in stationary isolation, you learn a lot about yourself. About 100 pages in, and it really makes you think about how ungrateful most people are about simple everyday things. Even something as small as itching your throat, impossible for Joe, yet it never even crosses our minds. I think the most interesting thing so far is just their way of life in Los Angeles. Even with Joe’s father hardly making money, his mother and father still provide very well for the family of five. Using various ways of preservation and harvesting their own fruits and vegetables, they are supplied throughout the off seasons with good fruit and cured meat. The end of the first book goes out with him knowing he's the closest thing to dead on earth, and discovers nothing could possibly be worth losing your life. The worst part is he doesn't even know what he truely went to war for. They said things like honor, liberty, or decency, all words with no universal definition. He risked his life for a word, and what would that really get him in the end? Nothing that could ever be worth being able to live, and not being able to even move in a bed is definitely not living.
Dylan, I strongly agree with you, because that was the first thing that came to my mind while reading about Joe. I don't understand how, even though his body is all almost gone, he's still alive. This has been the worst book I've ever read. What I mean by that is, just by reading about his injuries and imagining at the same time, it breaks my heart. He's too young to go through such things and not being able to do anything about it.
I fully agree with you too, Dylan. It is unbelievable that Joe is still alive after what happened to him. Although it may be possible, it is still hard to believe. I feel sadness for Joe because there are really people out there living like this, who have fought for our country.
"It was a kind of duty you owed yourself that when anybody said come on son do this or do that you should stand up and say look mister why should I do this for who am I doing it and what am I going to get out of it in the end?"
Why does no one ever fulfill this duty? I think military recruiting is the biggest propaganda scam ever. All war is based on deceit, and war is just about the most chaotic act on earth, so why is it the only thing people don't question? Any other time someone would do something, they almost always ask what they get in return, but what do you get from going to war besides getting handicapped or possibly dying? Honor, decency, or liberty? I don't think you have to risk your life fighting another man's war to be honorable, decent, or free. They just want you to be a pawn in their plan to take what they want from whoever they want.
While reading Johnny got his gun I came across a great quote that really puts Johnny's condition in perspective for the the reader. The quote is "Perhaps after one or five or twenty years he could develop such strength that the circle of his back could rock wider and wider and wider until he rolled off the table". I chose this quote because it explains how weak and lost joe is, he knows he cant escape and live a normal life but nothing stops him from atleast dreaming about it. It is impossible but in joe's mind is different, in his head he lives his life over again and nothing can stop him from what he wants Until he wakes up or opens his eyes.To be alone all the time and have to deal with the sadness and emptyness was the burden joe was faced with.
"He was a dead man with a mind that could still think. He knew all the answers that the dead knew and couldn't think about. He could speak for the dead because he was one of them. He was the first of all the soldiers who had died since the beginning of time who still had a brain left to think with." This to me is an important quote from the book, because Joe is nearer than anyone else living to death, he has the authority to talk about death firsthand and to potentially make people change their minds about what they perceive to be worth dying for. In this regard, Joe's tragedy also makes him both a leader and a prophet..
The book Johnny Got His Gun by Donald Trumbo is a very insightful look at the value of life. Joe Bonham, a man made limbless from the extremities of war, is bound to a hospital bed for the rest of his life. While there, he ponders why he's there in the first place, and what made him agree to going to war. After that it's an endless struggle to keep his solitary brain sane and entertained. At first I didn’t really understand the book at all, but that was due mainly to the thought-narrative style with which it was written. After I had read through a few chapters and doubled over the spark notes, the story began to clear up and I was able to understand it much easier. While reading his experience, you immediately sympathize and realize all the things that Joe wish’s he could do that we don’t even think of. The plot of the story wasn’t always enticing, but the moral behind it was definitely worth while. He really questions what most people live for, and most of the time it’s pride. All of the young kids being drafted for war don’t want to look cowardly denying service for liberty, decency, or democracy. But is all that worth risking life and limb? “Give us a bill of sale dawn up plainly so we know in advance what we’re getting killed for and give us also a first mortgage on something as security so we can be sure after we’ve won your war that we’ve got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.” When you actually know what you could lose, such as Joe does, nothing is worth your life. As for a recommendation, I would say everyone should read it, but I’m not sure every one would take away what Trumbo had in mind.
Corey
ReplyDeleteAssignment #1
Johnny got his gun is about a troubled man that joins the army to serve his country and to prove something to his father who has recently died. I find it very interesting that instead of mourning his death, he is going to fight in the war. I had hoped that Johnny would be ok when he joined the army but just like many others, the army had ruined Johnny’s life. One day he was in battle and mistakenly uncovered a landmine and was blown into pieces. What was left of his body was lying on the floor when he was recovered by a medical officer and bandaged up, they took him to a hospital room and put him to sleep so he wouldn’t be in pain anymore. It was mortifying to see what war does to ones self, Johnny lays there on a hospital table just realizing that the contact with the landmine forced the doctors to amputate all of his limbs. They even figured that he was in a coma so WHY even keep him alive. I would put him out of his misery.
Assignment #2
DeleteI'm pretty sure it was an artillery shell that hit his "bomb proof trench" and took him out, and the shrapnel mangled his body beyond repair. But yes, lying limbless in a hospital bed could ruin your life, although there is opportunity to expand your mind. Some monks spend their entire live sitting with their able bodies perfectly still and meditate for hours on end. He thinks he needs to spend all his time thinking because his brain is pretty much all he has left, but he hasn't tried not thinking at all.
Assignment #2
DeleteMost of the times we don't appreciate the things we have. While reading about Joe laying in a hospital bed and not being able to do anything is terrible. He's pretty much hopeless, alone in a place where even the smallest footsteps are a sign that he's still alive. I hope he gets better, even though it seems impossible right now.
Assignment #2
DeleteI agree with you Corey, I think that Joe should also be put out of his misery. Who wants to live with only the thoughts in your head, with no way of expressing them.. Its not living! He is hardly surviving..
Nate
ReplyDeleteAssignment #1
Joe Bonham lies injured in a hospital bed. While conscious, Joe thinks back over scenes from his past: the night of his fathers death and the night before he left his girlfriend Kareen to go to World War I. Before his family moved to Los Angeles, Joe grew up in Shale City, a small town in Colorado. Joe continues to live inside of his head, reliving memories and being terrorized by nightmares. He wonders how he can even tell whether he is awake or asleep. Joe is gravely injured from a land mine. He has no arms, no legs, no hearing and no ability to see or talk. In one of Joe's memories, he remembers chasing and killing a rat that was eating a dead mans face. Joe then begins to have a nightmare about the rat eating his own face before realizing that it was all just a dream. This scene to me is gruesome and disgusting, but i still love this book so far, and i do not think it should be banned anywhere..
Corey
ReplyDeleteI share your thoughts on the fact that this book shouldn't be banned because its a great book showing the faults and casualties of war. Its terrible what war does but you shouldn't punish the author of a book that is just telling the truth and explaining the risks of war.
I also was just wondering why you didn't bring up the condition that Joe is in, because he not only lays in the hospital bed hurt, but torn limb from limb after what happened with the landmine. Its essential to fully understanding Joe's pain and suffering.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDylan
ReplyDeleteAssignment #1
When you spend over a year in stationary isolation, you learn a lot about yourself. About 100 pages in, and it really makes you think about how ungrateful most people are about simple everyday things. Even something as small as itching your throat, impossible for Joe, yet it never even crosses our minds. I think the most interesting thing so far is just their way of life in Los Angeles. Even with Joe’s father hardly making money, his mother and father still provide very well for the family of five. Using various ways of preservation and harvesting their own fruits and vegetables, they are supplied throughout the off seasons with good fruit and cured meat. The end of the first book goes out with him knowing he's the closest thing to dead on earth, and discovers nothing could possibly be worth losing your life. The worst part is he doesn't even know what he truely went to war for. They said things like honor, liberty, or decency, all words with no universal definition. He risked his life for a word, and what would that really get him in the end? Nothing that could ever be worth being able to live, and not being able to even move in a bed is definitely not living.
Assignment #2
DeleteDylan, I strongly agree with you, because that was the first thing that came to my mind while reading about Joe. I don't understand how, even though his body is all almost gone, he's still alive. This has been the worst book I've ever read. What I mean by that is, just by reading about his injuries and imagining at the same time, it breaks my heart. He's too young to go through such things and not being able to do anything about it.
Nate
DeleteAssignment #2
I fully agree with you too, Dylan. It is unbelievable that Joe is still alive after what happened to him. Although it may be possible, it is still hard to believe. I feel sadness for Joe because there are really people out there living like this, who have fought for our country.
Dylan
ReplyDeleteAssignment #2
"It was a kind of duty you owed yourself that when anybody said come on son do this or do that you should stand up and say look mister why should I do this for who am I doing it and what am I going to get out of it in the end?"
Why does no one ever fulfill this duty? I think military recruiting is the biggest propaganda scam ever. All war is based on deceit, and war is just about the most chaotic act on earth, so why is it the only thing people don't question? Any other time someone would do something, they almost always ask what they get in return, but what do you get from going to war besides getting handicapped or possibly dying? Honor, decency, or liberty? I don't think you have to risk your life fighting another man's war to be honorable, decent, or free. They just want you to be a pawn in their plan to take what they want from whoever they want.
Corey
ReplyDeleteAssignment #2
While reading Johnny got his gun I came across a great quote that really puts Johnny's condition in perspective for the the reader. The quote is "Perhaps after one or five or twenty years he could develop such strength that the circle of his back could rock wider and wider and wider until he rolled off the table". I chose this quote because it explains how weak and lost joe is, he knows he cant escape and live a normal life but nothing stops him from atleast dreaming about it. It is impossible but in joe's mind is different, in his head he lives his life over again and nothing can stop him from what he wants Until he wakes up or opens his eyes.To be alone all the time and have to deal with the sadness and emptyness was the burden joe was faced with.
Nate
ReplyDeleteAssignment #2
"He was a dead man with a mind that could still think. He knew all the answers that the dead knew and couldn't think about. He could speak for the dead because he was one of them. He was the first of all the soldiers who had died since the beginning of time who still had a brain left to think with." This to me is an important quote from the book, because Joe is nearer than anyone else living to death, he has the authority to talk about death firsthand and to potentially make people change their minds about what they perceive to be worth dying for. In this regard, Joe's tragedy also makes him both a leader and a prophet..
Dylan
ReplyDeleteAssignment #3
The book Johnny Got His Gun by Donald Trumbo is a very insightful look at the value of life. Joe Bonham, a man made limbless from the extremities of war, is bound to a hospital bed for the rest of his life. While there, he ponders why he's there in the first place, and what made him agree to going to war. After that it's an endless struggle to keep his solitary brain sane and entertained. At first I didn’t really understand the book at all, but that was due mainly to the thought-narrative style with which it was written. After I had read through a few chapters and doubled over the spark notes, the story began to clear up and I was able to understand it much easier. While reading his experience, you immediately sympathize and realize all the things that Joe wish’s he could do that we don’t even think of. The plot of the story wasn’t always enticing, but the moral behind it was definitely worth while. He really questions what most people live for, and most of the time it’s pride. All of the young kids being drafted for war don’t want to look cowardly denying service for liberty, decency, or democracy. But is all that worth risking life and limb? “Give us a bill of sale dawn up plainly so we know in advance what we’re getting killed for and give us also a first mortgage on something as security so we can be sure after we’ve won your war that we’ve got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.” When you actually know what you could lose, such as Joe does, nothing is worth your life. As for a recommendation, I would say everyone should read it, but I’m not sure every one would take away what Trumbo had in mind.