Johnny Got His Gun

dignity because he could no longer interact with other humans. It was the

author’s idea of the worst case scenario that could have occurred to a

soldier who was injured. The description of his injuries gave the reader a

picture of what it would be like to have lived with no legs, arms, or a face.

It was a gruesome thought that helped personalize the story by making the

reader feel bad for the main character. At this time many perceived fighting

in a war to be noble but for most of the soldiers it was anything but noble.

Many times television shows, movies, and books had glamorized war, but that

was not the truth. This book showed the harsh reality of war that most people

didn’t know existed at the time. War is something that no man should ever

hope for, but young men were told that it was glorious to fight for your

country. The reality was that they put their lives on the line every day to

fight for their country. It may have been heroic but definitely not glamorous

to kill another human. In some cases, soldiers who were in wars had severe

mental problems when they would return home from war because of the brutality

they saw. When Joe finally became conscience of his surroundings he realized

what had happened to him. Due to his injuries Joe was isolated from the rest

of the world. This made it so that he didn’t even know if he was awake or

sleeping. He kept having flashbacks to the war and to his life previous to

the war. Then when he realized that his life was over he wanted to end it but

he had no power to. He told others through morse code but they denied him

death. The life that Joe Bonham led after his injuries was in no way

glamorous but instead the worst possible way to live

When