Reviews - Johnny Got His Gun

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943 reviews for:

Johnny Got His Gun

Dalton Trumbo

4.18 AVERAGE

anthonycottington's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional sad medium-paced

boekenwurmjapo60's review against another edition

5.0

Intense . Impressive .

pk1's review against another edition

4.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Not my favorite literary war/PTSD story, but I can't deny that the writing style is extremely modern for being published in 1939, and Trumbo approaches the topic with unique perspectives on war and what it really means to be alive.

"And what kind of liberty were they fighting for anyway? How much liberty and whose idea of liberty? . . . What the hell does liberty mean anyhow? It's just a word . . . only it's a special kind of word. . . . No sir anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar. . . . America fought a war for liberty in 1776. Lots of guys died. And in the end does America have any more liberty than Canada or Australia who didn't fight at all? . . . Then there was this freedom the little guys were always getting killed for. . . . Please mister give us a bill of sale on this freedom before we go out and get killed. For Christ sake give us things to fight for we can see and feel and pin down and understand. No more highfalutin words that mean nothing. . . . You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. . . . Nobody but the dead know whether all these things people talk about are worth dying for or not. And the dead can't talk. So the words about noble deaths and sacred blood and honor . . . are all put into dead lips by grave robbers and fakes who have no right to speak for the dead."

"Hickory dickory dock my daddy's nuts from shellshock. Humpty dumpty thought he was wise till gas came along and burned out his eyes. A dillar a dollar a ten o'clock scholar blow off his legs and then watch him holler. Rockabye baby in the tree top don't stop a bomb or you'll probably flop. Now I lay me down to sleep my bombproof cellar's good and deep but if I'm killed before I wake remember god it's for your sake amen."

"Already they were looking ahead they were figuring the future and somewhere in the future they saw war. To fight the war they would need men and if men saw the future they wouldn't fight. So they were masking the future they were keeping the future a deadly secret."

~~~~
Bumped up from a 3 to a 4 star on a re-read. Still reads as very modern. A must-read in anti-war literature!

frankenlvr's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

They forgot the thing they were fighting for the thing they were dying for....They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child. They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important. They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.

Holy moly. This book left me in shambles near the end. It definitely made its way to my top 10 and for good reason.

Johnny Got His Gun broke me from the very beginning with the foreword I read by Cindy Sheehan. I've always been against the wars the US has started, especially in Southwest/West Asian countries, because of their direct impact to me and my Arab American family. However, many Americans aren't given a worldview such as the one I was handed at birth and are therefore more susceptible to believing that what happens in other countries simply does not concern them. It's a belief that has been passed down for generations and one that needs to be changed. The US has meddled in almost every modern world issue and will continue to do so; thus, we must always keep track of how others are living, even if they seem out of reach, because the US has already reached them.

War is brutal. War is mean. I know some will argue that in certain cases war is necessary, but I've become convinced that killing anyone isn't even necessary. This book has deepened my frustration with the taking of anyone's life, specifically by the government or situations made by them. Reading it has only intensified my feelings towards war and the people affected by it, such as those like the main character, Joe Bonham. Joe didn't think much of war prior to being drafted, and he sure as hell didn't think much about what he was supposedly fighting for: democracy, freedom, liberty, etc. Those didn't matter in the end because he himself was stuck in a prison: his mind and remaining parts of his body. What kept me reading though was the stream of consciousness used throughout the novel, and it was the perfect technique to get inside Joe's head. I loved the beginning where Joe slips in and out of consciousness, not knowing until a dream ends or an outside force wakes him. There was no way to know how long since the war he fought in, how long he's been barely alive, how long he hasn't felt his loved ones.

My favorite part is a spoiler, but it was the most intense part for me and the one that officially broke me as I wept while reading it.

It was near the end when Joe's new nurse successfully communicates with Joe by putting her finger on the bit of skin left on him and spelling out "Merry Christmas." The fact that Joe didn't care that he lost track of time, something that he previously saw as his only gateway into sanity and likewise humanity, because he knew it was Christmas, and he knew at least one other person could give him a voice. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful scene, and I will randomly think back to it and feel my heart break all over again.

Johnny Got His Gun is a must-read for everyone, especially those who are on the fence about war.