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Johnny Got His Gun Essay

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“Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die” - Herbert Hoover. In the end, Glory and signing up to protect the liberty and freedom of a country is not on the minds of the youth who are wounded, screaming for their mothers, and bleeding to death. The novel Johnny Got His Gun, written by Dalton Trumbo, is centered around the life of Joe Bonham,19, after he was wounded in France after being drafted into the military during the first World War. The movie, Shenandoah, directed by Andrew V McLaglen, is an American Civil War film focused on the life of Charlie Anderson and his family. Although he does not believe in the war for his moral beliefs, he is forced to take action when his youngest son, Boy, is captured by the Union …show more content…

Before being drafted - upon the United States’ entrance into World War 1 - Joe was an average young adult. He had experiences with many jobs and relationships as well as being influenced by the war propaganda that made fighting in wars for the feel of glory and protecting the liberty and freedom of America every citizen’s duty. In contrast to Johnny Got His Gun, the main character in Shenandoah, Charlie, does not believe in the glorification of war the way Joe does. In the beginning of the movie, Charlie is focused on more domestic matters like going to church, taking care of his family, and keeping the family farm in shape so they can make a living. Charlie is experienced to know that wasting your life on the belief of dying in battle for glory is fake and only a way for the government to get the young and poor to fight in their wars, but eventually Charlie and his family must go to war in order to save a member that has been captured. In the end, both parties -Joe and Charlie’s family- suffer similar loss to some extent because of Joe’s original belief about glorifying war and being drafted into the military, and Charlie’s decision to not glorify war but instead to wait until the war had affected him and his

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In the movie, “Johnny Got His Gun,” Johnny's flashbacks are from a combination of ether and the battle Johnny made it through. His head is very messed up and injuries are very bad. Because of these nightmares, they bring him flashbacks. It is on account that his injuries are so bad that remembering home and his girl are his ways of coping. His first flashback is of having conversations with his girl.

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Despite the grim realities of war, like many of his fellow WWII veterans, Gordon chose to adopt a more optimistic perspective. In stark contrast, the Vietnam War divided the nation, sparking widespread protests and civil unrest. The soldiers in Wiest's account faced a less welcome homecoming, often driving them to conceal their past military service. Moreover, many veterans from Charlie Company struggled with life after the war compared to their counterparts from Easy Platoon. Willie McTear, a Vietnam veteran, exemplified this struggle.

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Luis Valdez in the play “The Buck Private”, the death of young men and their innocence in the Vietnam War. Valdez supports his claims by illustrating Johnny the protagonist, he joined the army because he wanted the respect and honor it gives. Valdez wants to inform young people the dangers and horrors of the Vietnam war in order to save young people's lives. Valdez writes in an informal tone for young people so they can make the right choice for their lives other than joining the army. Johnny’s a tragic hero because he strives to be a good person and to help others in need; Johnny enlisted in the Vietnam war to “better” his life.

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The Enlightening “They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.” In the 1939 book “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo, the main character Joe Bonham was drafted into World War 1. During the war Joe’s trench, along with almost everything inside, was terminated. Joe suffered the tragic loss of both legs, arms and all five of his senses from the shell. Joe understands first hand that in the moment of death the single thought racing through his broken and destroyed body is “I want to live”.

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Mary Lonergan Mr. Pellerin AP Literature January 1, 2023 Johnny Got his Gun Essay In this excerpt from Daniel Trumbo’s Johnny Got his Gun, Joe struggles with his decision to fish with his friend, Bill, instead of his father. Through this seemingly insignificant decision, Trumbo illustrates the shifting nature of Joe’s relationship with his father as Joe enters adolescence and begins to rely more on the company of his peers. To emphasize this shift, Trumbo divulges carefully selected details that provide information about the characters’ lives and personalities. Furthermore, the author also chooses to write in limited third-person perspective, so the reader primarily has insight into Joe’s thoughts and emotions.

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War is senseless violence and brutality, but also where you can fight for freedom and end injustice. The negatives of war, like senseless brutality are sometimes used for lessons, so men don’t abandon the war. The positives are fighting for your freedom and ending injustice, if your country wins the war you get your freedom and you stop unnecessary deaths. In the book, My Brother Sam is Dead, the Collier brothers show that war has many goods and bads to it. In the book, My Brother Sam is Dead, Tim decides to be neutral, at the end of the novel, due to the ironic death of his best friend Jerry, his father Life, and his brother Sam.

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Joe had a troubled childhood where he had no one who he felt that he could truly rely on and this caused him to develop the attitude that he was the only one that could determine his own happiness; this notion was also backed up by his absent father “Son, if there’s one thing I’ve figured out about life, it’s that if you want to be happy, you have to learn how to be happy on your own.” (58) Joe grew up not trusting anyone and not having anyone to rely on which is why he was so untrusting of his teammates when he first came to Washington university. The complete lack of trust that Joe felt for his. Because Joe only knew one thing when he was growing up he bases all of his decisions off of his only outlook of like. It took many major events for Joe to abandoned his previous notions of other people and learn to truly trust

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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.

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In the beginning of the war many people thought that war was fun. They thought it would end quickly and everything would be fine. Even Charley thought that the war would be fun and exciting. No one really knew what war was like. The people threw flowers and candy at the soldiers as they passed.

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He clearly wanted nothing to do with the war as he explains "I was too good for this war. Too smart, too compassionate, too everything. It couldn’t happen. I was above it”. Him saying this meant his heart was to full of compassion to kill anyone or be violent to anyone, he was a better man then that he didn 't want the grief of killing someone to hang heavy over his head for the rest of his life, but he was afraid to admit that to anyone until now.

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Growing up Charley is a daddy’s boy. His father said he had to choose him or his mother and could not be a mamas and daddy’s boy. While increasing by age Charley would play ball and wait around for his father at the liquor store. Then a day came were he just up and left Charley and mama. “War means tears to thousands of mothers” (Starr 8).

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Joe and Charlie both lose people that they care deeply about because of the consequences that came along with getting involved in wars. Joe suffers many serious injuries as a result of fighting in World War One, which leave him incapable of communicating with the outside world. He is therefore isolated within his own mind, and even though he is not dead he still loses the people he loves dearly because he no longer can have interactions with them. One person who he loses is his mother. He has fond memories of his mother from his childhood and misses the comfort that she has provided him his entire life.

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Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo’s novel, “Johnny Got His Gun” tells all about a father and son relationship that many people may envy for. Trumbo characterizes their relationship with a respectful tone, yet Trumbo also makes the love and trust the father and son share very apparent throughout the novel. Trumbo is able utilize literary devices such as third person point of view and a lack of formal punctuation, using syntax to help the reader have a better perspective on the relationship the father and son partake in.

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"In 1990, handguns were used to kill approximately 48 people in Japan, 8 in Great Britain, 34 in Switzerland, 52 in Canada, 58 in Israel, 42 in West Germany and 10,728 in the United States”. For many years, America has been regarded as one of the world’s most perilous and ferocious countries in the world. The death rate caused by active gun shooters in the US is extraordinary: “since 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country 's history”. Hence why public ownership of guns should be abolished in the USA. Can you imagine to what extent the death rate in America has increased by now?

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