Uncharted Books

Hey everyone, welcome to my first blog post. I’ll be updating this blog a couple times a week to talk about books. The books that I will be talking about are ones that I have read that I think I may use when I eventually become an English teacher.

Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel that released the first few days of World War 2, but concentrates on World War 1. In its essence this book is an anti-war novel, that was its purpose and it served it well, but there is so much more to it than just that. Johnny Got His Gun follows the life of Joe Bonham, an 18 year old that is drafted to fight in World War 1 in 1918.

This book is one of the most disturbing, but quite interesting books that I have ever read. The reader is forced to spend the entirety of the book within in the protagonist’s, Joe Bonham, mind. The reason for this being that due to injuries sustained from war, he has no arms, no legs, no ears, no eyes, no mouth, and no tongue. He cannot see, speak, hear, or taste and is left with a limited sense of touch. Unfortunately for Joe his brain is very much alive and well, trapped in this body with no way out.

A man trapped within his own body, Joe has only his memories and imagination to keep himself busy and amused. Joe brings the reader along many of his thoughts and you can see his life blossom, and be ripped apart. Memories of fishing trips with his now dead father, nights spent with his girlfriend Kareen, and days spent working at a bakery.

Lying on his back for an unknown amount of time, Joe begins to lose his mind, until he begins to tell time. Even this however cannot save Joe from his horrifying fate. Joe eventually finds a way to communicate with outsiders, but even this is doomed as Trumbo keeps us from getting out.

This novel is a stream of consciousness with less punctuation and capitalism, and the reader is thrown into tortuous run ons separated with short ones; and beautiful passages filled with nostalgia… the narrative structure captures the doom of the protagonist magnificently.

This novel is definitely an anti-war novel, written with a purpose– and so sometimes it does slip into straight out pacifist ideals. But since this is all through Joe’s mind the strength of the narrative is not lost to a few pages– and Trumbo still gets his point across. The moist poignant part of these pages would be, 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.

Dalton Trumbo won the National Book Award for Johnny Got His Gun in 1939. The popularity of the book brought some unwanted attention as well. Trumbo was part of the Communist Party and throughout his career had unpopular left-leaning political stances. Fan letters from Nazi-sympathizers that Trumbo received from the misunderstandings of Johnny Got His Gun led him to hand in the mail to the FBI. The FBI intentions changed and the filed a case on Dalton Trumbo, along with 9 other Hollywood directors and writers, for whether or not the Communist sympathizers had propagandized their American audiences. The “Hollywood Ten” refused to testify and as a result were found guilty of contempt of Congress and were blacklisted from Hollywood for years to come.

The reason why I think that this book would be so beneficial in a classroom setting would be for its humanistic ideals, never losing hope, and just how different and beautifully written it is. Trumbo may have used this as an anti-war novel but I see it equally as a humanistic novel. Over and over again throughout the novel the importance of all people, the Americans, English, French, Mexicans, Germans and all other people on the planet, are equally important and meaningful to Joe. He constantly resents the effects war has on all aspects of every persons life, and how the people that orchestrate wars do not care for those fighting them. Joe puts an emphasis on the “little guy” the ‘everyday Joe’ that you see on the street; how all their lives are affected by the decisions of government officials, higher-ups that aren’t on the frontlines fighting, but in offices far away sending others to their deaths.

Trumbo writes this novel so beautifully, while still allowing his message to shine through to the reader. The persistence of human life to never quit; an ideology for the basic needs of every person, the innate goodness each human possesses, and ability to solve human problems rationally.

I definitely recommend this book to everyone, as frankly it left me speechless by the end.