Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Johnny Got His Gun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Horrors of War
The Value of Life
Elites vs. Common People
Time and Memory
Summary
Analysis
Joe doesn’t give up on tapping. He knows that he’s sane, even if the people on the outside can’t see it yet. Joe begins to wonder if the old day nurse is deliberately keeping him hostage. If she were, there would be nothing Joe could do about it. He compares himself to enslaved people throughout history, from the Carthaginians who fought against Rome or the Egyptians who built the pyramids.
While Joe often explores the conflict between leaders and common soldiers in the army, in some sections, he looks more broadly at the conflict between elites and common people throughout history. Here, Joe sees himself as part of a diverse lineage of oppressed people, drawing comparisons between his lack of agency in the hospital and more famous examples of people who were imprisoned or enslaved by a more powerful entity.
Themes
A doctor with heavy footsteps enters the room. Joe feels the man inject something into the stump of his arm. It’s some kind of painkiller, and Joe realizes maybe they do know what he’s doing with the tapping but just want him to be quiet. Joe wants to keep tapping, but his mind falls into a fog.
Just when Joe starts finally overcoming the limitations of his own body, he faces an even bigger obstacle: the hospital staff and the regulations they follow (which are a microcosm for the larger authority of the military and the government). The cloth mask over Joe’s face symbolizes how the hospital wants to keep Joe out of view, a position that the actions of the doctor now further emphasize.
Themes
