"Johnny Got His Gun"
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Wolran Kim
September 2013
“The nearest thing to a dead man on earth” (117) lies on a bed in a hospital right after WWI. He has no arms, no legs, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no tongue, and no grounds to take even a breath. “I can’t lie here forever like this until maybe years from now I die… I can’t breathe but I’m breathing (64).” He is not really living, yet he cannot kill himself, and cannot die. He reminds me of a torso, a survived torso with a brain, but no face. He cannot speak, see, hear, or smell; he feels people around him only by vibrations.
While I think about the word, euthanasia, Joe continues to live inside his head and heart, reliving beautiful memories and being terrorized by nightmares. His heart can still feel memories of his family, his childhood, his friends, and his lover. The blade of war chopped his body, so he is placed on the bed in a laboratory as if he is an experimental object. He thinks that he is alive only because of the doctors’ pride, who only cares about their skills, not at all for the quality of his life. Joe thinks about the foolishness of dying in a war that had nothing to do with him, and about the deceitfulness of abstract words like “liberty,” ”democracy,” “honor,” and “freedom.”
War is killing Joe very slowly, horribly slowly. Then, what and why is war? Clausewitz (1780-1831) defines in “The Idea of War” by Hew Strachan that, “War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will” (7). Numerous wars between countries, races, or ethnicities caused by a grabbing sovereign, the military, economy, religion, or ideology were the large axes of human history. War is the most extensive misconduct, and declaration of war is the start of legal murder and cruelty. “But why? In any other dial even like buying a car or running an errand you had the right to say what’s there in it for me?” (110).
A great reason for war is pointless in front of an individual death. “They died crying in their mains like little babies” (117). During war, the process is never pressed hard for answers, but only records of killing and dying are produced. “I want to live I want to live I want to live” (117). The painful outcries of dying men are just noisy frets without any consideration in the war that throws bombs for victory.
The title, Johnny Got His Gun, gives an ironic feeling. War gave a gun and a slogan to Joe to kill his enemies, but he is killing himself in the cruelest way. His gun was a weapon aimed at him. Joe, the ordinary young man, not a heroic type, first thinks about The Dead and then about The Living, such as the two titles of the two sections in this antiwar book. His physical condition gives him pessimism of life, and his brain and heart give him optimism of living. He thinks of all the grotesque stories he’s heard about survivors of war; one man with an open-view stomach, one man who had his faced burned off only to return home and be killed by his wife. He also thinks that he is alive to be a point of pride for the doctors, who think only of their skills and victories and not at all about his quality of life. “The war had been a wonderful thing for the doctors” (85-86).
A medal that hung down on Joe’s chest was there, had declared war, was his last conscience, and also was a cruel action to kill Joe once again. What can he do with that medal? Could he be proud of himself as a piece of meat? Joe’s Morse code, which was the best and the last straw of human’s hope, was simply ignored. The Morse code man’s reply was that Joe’s wish to be shown to the outside world is just “against regulations” (234-235). Joe never goes out to see the world again before he dies, because he is living proof of the horrors of war.
"They” never wanted to bring to light an open secret of war; they just wanted to show the war trophies. War was ordered by the upper classes, “they,” but was fought only by the lower classes of the peaceful, such as Joe, people who can live just with their small liberties. Joe was an everyday, young American man, and his father never made enough money to save money in modern capitalism.
Rats that Joe saw on the battlefield were eating dead bodies, and these rats are the same as “them” who stand to profit from war after billions have died. War seems to be a meat diet of human nature. Readers usually empathize with the protagonist of the novel.
However, empathy for Joe is almost impossible because he is dismembered as a body without a face, with just a brain and heart. He cannot even have boundaries between dreams and reality without eyelids. He is a living thing without any sense of being alive.
“He thought here you are Joe Bonham lying like a side of beef all the rest of your life and what?” (109) Joe Bonham is a dead man with just a mind.
However, his brain still thinks and his heart still cries. His brain still has nightmares between consciousness and unconsciousness during his hospitalization in the prison for four years. “He would concentrate the whole war into a small piece of meat and bone and hair that they would never forget it as long as they lived” (225). Once getting over the death, trying to grab a single strand of hope is the original nature and amazing ability of humans. Joe’s brain and heart still wants to live despite being a sample for display that shows, “here is a war” (225).
Could some peace and some of the power be called as true peace and true power resulting in death? “But what do the dead say?” “And the dead can’t talk” (115). “There’s nothing noble in death” (119). Human survival is higher than any ideal. It is ironic that WWII burst out right after the publication of this antiwar book in 1939. Numerous Joes in history are not even dilemmas of war or war trophies, but expendable weapons. Joe is just a terribly unfortunate young man on the boundary of life and death who is a horrible scene himself in front of a lofty ideal of war. “They wanted only to forget him” (236), because “if men saw the future they wouldn’t fight” (241). They just wanted to shut the lid of the coffin against him for the next war.
====================
Wolran Kim
September 2013
“The nearest thing to a dead man on earth” (117) lies on a bed in a hospital right after WWI. He has no arms, no legs, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no tongue, and no grounds to take even a breath. “I can’t lie here forever like this until maybe years from now I die… I can’t breathe but I’m breathing (64).” He is not really living, yet he cannot kill himself, and cannot die. He reminds me of a torso, a survived torso with a brain, but no face. He cannot speak, see, hear, or smell; he feels people around him only by vibrations.
While I think about the word, euthanasia, Joe continues to live inside his head and heart, reliving beautiful memories and being terrorized by nightmares. His heart can still feel memories of his family, his childhood, his friends, and his lover. The blade of war chopped his body, so he is placed on the bed in a laboratory as if he is an experimental object. He thinks that he is alive only because of the doctors’ pride, who only cares about their skills, not at all for the quality of his life. Joe thinks about the foolishness of dying in a war that had nothing to do with him, and about the deceitfulness of abstract words like “liberty,” ”democracy,” “honor,” and “freedom.”
War is killing Joe very slowly, horribly slowly. Then, what and why is war? Clausewitz (1780-1831) defines in “The Idea of War” by Hew Strachan that, “War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will” (7). Numerous wars between countries, races, or ethnicities caused by a grabbing sovereign, the military, economy, religion, or ideology were the large axes of human history. War is the most extensive misconduct, and declaration of war is the start of legal murder and cruelty. “But why? In any other dial even like buying a car or running an errand you had the right to say what’s there in it for me?” (110).
A great reason for war is pointless in front of an individual death. “They died crying in their mains like little babies” (117). During war, the process is never pressed hard for answers, but only records of killing and dying are produced. “I want to live I want to live I want to live” (117). The painful outcries of dying men are just noisy frets without any consideration in the war that throws bombs for victory.
The title, Johnny Got His Gun, gives an ironic feeling. War gave a gun and a slogan to Joe to kill his enemies, but he is killing himself in the cruelest way. His gun was a weapon aimed at him. Joe, the ordinary young man, not a heroic type, first thinks about The Dead and then about The Living, such as the two titles of the two sections in this antiwar book. His physical condition gives him pessimism of life, and his brain and heart give him optimism of living. He thinks of all the grotesque stories he’s heard about survivors of war; one man with an open-view stomach, one man who had his faced burned off only to return home and be killed by his wife. He also thinks that he is alive to be a point of pride for the doctors, who think only of their skills and victories and not at all about his quality of life. “The war had been a wonderful thing for the doctors” (85-86).
A medal that hung down on Joe’s chest was there, had declared war, was his last conscience, and also was a cruel action to kill Joe once again. What can he do with that medal? Could he be proud of himself as a piece of meat? Joe’s Morse code, which was the best and the last straw of human’s hope, was simply ignored. The Morse code man’s reply was that Joe’s wish to be shown to the outside world is just “against regulations” (234-235). Joe never goes out to see the world again before he dies, because he is living proof of the horrors of war.
"They” never wanted to bring to light an open secret of war; they just wanted to show the war trophies. War was ordered by the upper classes, “they,” but was fought only by the lower classes of the peaceful, such as Joe, people who can live just with their small liberties. Joe was an everyday, young American man, and his father never made enough money to save money in modern capitalism.
Rats that Joe saw on the battlefield were eating dead bodies, and these rats are the same as “them” who stand to profit from war after billions have died. War seems to be a meat diet of human nature. Readers usually empathize with the protagonist of the novel.
However, empathy for Joe is almost impossible because he is dismembered as a body without a face, with just a brain and heart. He cannot even have boundaries between dreams and reality without eyelids. He is a living thing without any sense of being alive.
“He thought here you are Joe Bonham lying like a side of beef all the rest of your life and what?” (109) Joe Bonham is a dead man with just a mind.
However, his brain still thinks and his heart still cries. His brain still has nightmares between consciousness and unconsciousness during his hospitalization in the prison for four years. “He would concentrate the whole war into a small piece of meat and bone and hair that they would never forget it as long as they lived” (225). Once getting over the death, trying to grab a single strand of hope is the original nature and amazing ability of humans. Joe’s brain and heart still wants to live despite being a sample for display that shows, “here is a war” (225).
Could some peace and some of the power be called as true peace and true power resulting in death? “But what do the dead say?” “And the dead can’t talk” (115). “There’s nothing noble in death” (119). Human survival is higher than any ideal. It is ironic that WWII burst out right after the publication of this antiwar book in 1939. Numerous Joes in history are not even dilemmas of war or war trophies, but expendable weapons. Joe is just a terribly unfortunate young man on the boundary of life and death who is a horrible scene himself in front of a lofty ideal of war. “They wanted only to forget him” (236), because “if men saw the future they wouldn’t fight” (241). They just wanted to shut the lid of the coffin against him for the next war.