Joe Bonham may have been forced to join a war, but others may have made the conscious decision to join a war, even when they had no freedom before joining. Joe Bonham from Johnny Got His Gun and Gabriel from Shenandoah both had difficult lives growing up, and their decisions both brought them to join a war, whether it was a choice or not. When looking at their childhoods, their beliefs, and how they ended up in different situations, it is easy to see several similarities and differences between the characters. The amount of choice that Joe and Gabriel had in joining a war could not be any more different.
In Johnny Got His Gun, Joe had a girlfriend, Kareem, and had an amazing life set up with her, when all of a sudden he was drafted for WW1, and there was no choice for him to take besides leaving to fight for his country. He was required to leave due to the draft, and wanted to stay in order for him to have to stay with his family, promising he’ll be back. He had more important things to do besides fighting in a war. He wants to build a family, and to him, that’s much more important than going to war. He had so much that he wanted to stay for, but he didn’t have any choice in whether or not he could leave. All men were required to go, no matter what reasons they had for staying.
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Gabriel was a slave, until a soldier told him that he was free and could do whatever he wanted to do. Gabriel had almost nothing for him to lose, besides his friend Boy, but he didn’t have as many people to care for as Joe did. Gabriel was a slave for all of his life, but chose to work as part of the Army, which is, in a way, forcing him to do things like he used to do. He chose to work for people again, which is ironic for the reason that he was a slave all of his life, and was now required to work for different people now. He lost something when joining the Army; his