Consequences In Johnny Got His Gun And Shenandoah

Consequences in Johnny Got his Gun and Shenandoah

War is commonly associated with loss, the horrific experience of losing someone or something you love. There are many different types of loss, but the type of loss most frequently associated with war is the loss that occurs on the battlefield. In the World War One novel written by Dalton Trembo, “Johnny Got His Gun,” Joe experiences loss in the most horrific way as a direct result of fighting in war. During combat, a bomb exploded, and it changed Joe’s life forever. When in the hospital, Joe realizes that he lost his hearing, arms, legs, eyes, nose, and mouth. A different representation of war is the 1965 American Civil War Film Shenandoah. The star family of Shenandoah, the Anderson family,

Charlie is forced to acknowledge the war when his youngest son, Boy, is mistaken for a Confederate soldier and captured. After abandoning the search for Boy, they came upon a road that was guarded by a young soldier, and their horses startled him awake. In response to the horses, the soldier shot his gun, mistaking the Andersons for enemies. That gunshot killed Jacob Anderson, Charlie's eldest son. The Anderson family had continued to avoid involvement in the war as the film progressed, but despite that, Charlie Anderson was forced to face repercussions of war, through the accidental death of his son. The Anderson family had done everything they could to not be affected or involved in the war and yet, Jacob is dead. Despite Charlies’s effort to not participate in the war, he was still affected by the macabre consequences of war. War can affect even those who pledge not to involve themselves in

Joe's incident in battle seemingly resulted in the termination of his communication skills, however later in the novel he discovered a single method of communication: tapping out morse code. He still fights mental battles with himself due to his ongoing guilt about his life before the bomb, but he has a method of communication. Charlie Anderson, like Joe, was forced to grapple with the ramifications of war, first through the death of his eldest son, and then through the murder of his other son and daughter in law. However, unlike Joe, Charlie had experienced loss as a secondhand effect of war. Charlie’s family had strived to avoid anything related to the war, including repeatedly refusing a Confederate officer’s plea to join the war. The Andersons demonstrated a sort of conscientious objection, but yet in turn, still encountered monstrous aftereffects of war. In the end of the film Shenandoah, it is revealed that Charlie’s youngest son, Boy, found his way back home, after being captured by the Union troops. After his reunion with Boy, Charlie is shown coping with the loss of his two sons, and daughter in law. It is to be assumed that Charlie, although upset about the deaths of his family members, is okay in the