Johnny Got His Gun

Throughout the novel, Trumbo develops many positions about war. However, at the end of the novel he really expands on beliefs on war. He believes that the establishment causes men to rise up against each other, and if this did not exist, men would not do that. I disagree with this argument because I think it is human nature that when put in a threatening situation, our “flight or fight” instinct takes over. For example, a farmer would defend his or her land if he felt threatened by the person invading, or if a burglar came into a home, the individual in the home would have to fight to protect their home. Another position Trumbo takes on war is that one shouldn’t die for ideals, but rather “concrete things” such as a mother giving up their life for their child. I disagree with this idea that there is no idea worth dying for, because there is.

Johnny Got His Gun

I found the way the book was written to be interesting. I have never seen an author construct a piece where the reader cannot tell if the main character is conscious or hallucinating. This is important to the storyline because Joe has suffered greatly because of the war. All he has left is a functioning brain and nothing else, so his thoughts are always sporadic and sometimes confusing to the reader. One of the best parts of the book where the reader cannot tell if Joe is hallucinating or not is when he thinks he is being eaten by the rat. Trumbo uses such great imagery that the reader can picture the scenario in their mind and start to believe that this was in fact true, yet it was only a figment of Joe’s imagination. By including the thought process of Joe during the war, he is able to show reality of war and the struggles a soldier must face.

The March of the Flag

In the essay, The March of the Flag, Albert Beveridge makes the claim that Americans are, “God’s chosen people.” He assumes that Americans have a superiority over everyone else, and their sole purpose is to fight for God. He also argues that, “America’s power is to save the soil for liberty and civilization.” This means that an individual does not have a choice to fight, but rather must fight. It is similar to Johnny Got His Gun because he was forced to fight in a war that he knew little about. Joe was simply fighting for the protection of America’s wonderful gifts that God has given this country. In the book Joe describes the horrors and struggle of war that he had to face in order to preserve God’s land. Moreover, he sees Americans have a moral and global obligation to spread the knowledge and superiority of America’s religion and government to all the less fortunate people.

"America the Beautiful: What We're Fighting For"

In the essay, “America the Beautiful: What We’re Fighting For,” Dinesh D’Souza discussed the conflict between the Islamic and American worlds and opinions and controversy that keeps these worlds in tension. He also talks about how lucky Americans are and how wonderful America is as a country. There are many advantages that America has over other countries. D’Souza called American society, “the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence,” and goes as far as to say that Islamic societies produce, “wretched, servile, fatalistic and intolerant human beings.”

In the novel, Johnny Got His Gun, a young man, who like many others, goes to war because he is told by the leaders of his country to go to war. He was injured when a bomb explodes next to him, and he loses both his arms, legs, hearing, sight and can’t even speak.

The relationship between D’Souza’s essay and Johnny Got His Gun is that Johnny Got His Gun shows the reality of what war really is like. D’Souza explains the complications and problems with war, but not necessarily the consequences that come of it. Johnny Got His Gun shows how horrifying, sad and dangerous war is and the lasting impact it has on people’s lives.