Theme Of Johnny Got His Gun By Dalton Trumbo

Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, a novel published at the height of World War II, tells the story of a World War I soldier who loses his limbs, eyes, nose, and mouth in battle. The narrative follows Joe Bonham’s thoughts and emotions as he realizes he is ostracized in his devastated body, cut off from communication to the outside world. By presenting the mindset of an annihilated soldier, Trumbo questions the morality of war and the demands of society. Trumbo authentically presents the disabilities of war and the new technologies that allow soldiers to survive catastrophic injuries, a theme that is prevalent among the soldiers returning home from today’s wars.
There is a new generation of military men and women: one comprised of soldiers

With a concise response, “WHAT YOU ASK IS AGAINST REGULATIONS,” (Trumbo 242) Joe realizes the final casualty of war. “In one terrible moment he saw the whole thing. They wanted only to forget him. He was upon their conscience so they had abandoned him they had forsaken him” (Trumbo 244). Blackmore states, “Joe struggles against the pressure of the socius that bears down on him, the forces that want him silenced, that want the propaganda machine to run unhindered by resistant voices” (2). His efforts also do not come without consequences. Joe did not sign up for the war because he wanted to be a hero or gain power or even because he supported the cause. Joe joined the war because he was told to join the war. In the novel, Joe thinks about his rationale for joining the war. “He thought here you are Joe Bonham lying like a side of beef all the rest of your life and for what? Somebody tapped you on the shoulder and said come along son we’re going to war. So you went. But why?” (Trumbo 113). Blackmore’s argument is similar, stating that young men who do not support or show enthusiasm for today’s military actions are chastised as unpatriotic or cowards. Abel’s argument reflects the necessity to authentically describe Joe’s injuries and mental agony. He states, “the text cannot exist without the body, without the violence committed to the body; likewise the violence to the text, its censorship, would not exist without the portrayal of this injury to the body, which offended patriotic wartime sensibilities”