The Horrors of War
Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun is about Joe, a soldier who goes to fight in a war that he barely understands and ends up facing a fate that at times seems worse than death: he loses his arms, his legs, and much of his face, including his sense of hearing, smell, and sight. The novel takes place during World War I, the largest global war in history up until that point, when…
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The Value of Life
While Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun is a grim novel about the horrors of war, it also celebrates the value of life, particularly in Book II, which is called “The Living.” While the protagonist Joe is despondent and perhaps even suicidal in the first part of the book, as the novel progresses, he takes tentative steps to try to make the most of his new life without arms, legs, or a face. During…
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Elites vs. Common People
At the center of Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun is the conflict between politicians, generals, and other leaders who start wars and the common people like Joe who actually do the fighting. Protagonist Joe is an “average Joe” who goes to fight in World War I and becomes another battlefield casualty statistic, literally losing his identity when an artillery shell explosion blows off most of his face. It is only after Joe spends some…
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Time and Memory
When Joe loses his hearing and sight when an artillery shell explodes, he also loses all concept of time, and so he struggles to distinguish between past and present, often slipping back into memories from his old life in a series of memories and hallucinations. Although Joe’s father is dead before the novel even begins, he nevertheless plays a major role in the story through Joe’s memories of his childhood back in Shale City, Colorado…
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