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periodicreader 's review for:
Johnny Got His Gun
by Dalton Trumbo
I punched back in from my lunch break but I read the last 10 pages of this book under my desk because I didn't want to put it down.
This message is timeless. The words that Trumbo wrote about a forgotten soldier who must learn to communicate with his darkened world are deafening.
I want to type the last two pages in this space because I feel as though reading the words over and over again is helpful to my own mind....but that seems like redundant plagiarism...so I'll only quote this:
We are men of peace we are men who work and we want no quarrel. But if you destroy our peace if you take away our work if you try to range us one against the other we will know what to do. If you tell us to make the world safe for democracy we will take you seriously and by god and by Christ we will make it so. We will use the guns you force upon us we will use them to defend our very lives and the menace to our lives does not lie on the other side of a nomansland that was set apart without our consent it lies within our own boundaries her and now and we have seen it and we know it.
Put the guns into our hands and we will use them. Give us slogans and we will turn them into realities. Sing the battle hymns and we will take them up where you left off...Make no mistake of it we will live. We will be alive and we will walk and talk and eat and sing and laugh and feel and love and bear our children in tranquillity in security in decency in peace. You plan the wars you masters of men plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun."
I'm breathless. I'm filled with tears...I'm scared for the world and I am so so glad that i decided to read this book at this moment in time.
This message is timeless. The words that Trumbo wrote about a forgotten soldier who must learn to communicate with his darkened world are deafening.
I want to type the last two pages in this space because I feel as though reading the words over and over again is helpful to my own mind....but that seems like redundant plagiarism...so I'll only quote this:
We are men of peace we are men who work and we want no quarrel. But if you destroy our peace if you take away our work if you try to range us one against the other we will know what to do. If you tell us to make the world safe for democracy we will take you seriously and by god and by Christ we will make it so. We will use the guns you force upon us we will use them to defend our very lives and the menace to our lives does not lie on the other side of a nomansland that was set apart without our consent it lies within our own boundaries her and now and we have seen it and we know it.
Put the guns into our hands and we will use them. Give us slogans and we will turn them into realities. Sing the battle hymns and we will take them up where you left off...Make no mistake of it we will live. We will be alive and we will walk and talk and eat and sing and laugh and feel and love and bear our children in tranquillity in security in decency in peace. You plan the wars you masters of men plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun."
I'm breathless. I'm filled with tears...I'm scared for the world and I am so so glad that i decided to read this book at this moment in time.