Johnny Got His Gun 8

Someone is finally able to understand the Morse code that Joe is tapping by using his head. A man replies by tapping, asking what Joe wants. Joe is taken aback by this question because all he really wanted back were his limbs and his life. Joe then decides what he wants. He wants to be used as an educational tool. He wants to be an exhibit to teach people about the horrors of war. He thought he would be on exhibit in churches, Congress, Parliament, etcetera. When Joe asks the man this, the man says that it would be against regulations. It is against regulations because he is not allowed outside of the hospital. If Joe were to have done this, he would be classified as a freak show gathering people of all classes and ethnicities. Also, doctors are afraid as to how others will respond to Joe’s condition. New nurses can barely handle the sight of him, so we could only imagine what a young child’s response would be like. Also, if people were to see the condition that Joe was in, they would be terrified and would not want to fight in the war. People would not go to war for fear of death, or even worse, fear of ending up in the same condition as Joe.

Johnny Got His Gun 7

When under sedation, Joe has a dream about Christ. He dreams that he sees a woman looking for her son, and the woman’s son happens to be Christ. In the dream, Christ is traveling through the desert from Tucson and comes to the railroad station. He then proceeds to play cards with Joe and some other men. While playing cards, each man talks about his death. The men then realize that Joe does not belong in the group because he did not actually die in war, but the men also acknowledge that his fate is worse then death. This dream reinforces how Joe is different from others, even those who have died in war. The men who died in war categorize Joe and decide that his fate is worse than their own. Joe feels alienated once more.

Johhny Got His Gun 6

Joe is still struggling to find a way to communicate with others. One day, it dawns on him that he knows Morse code, so Joe decides to try to tap messages to communicate with the outside world. Joe taps his head to conduct the Morse code. Unfortunately, the nurse does not understand Joe when he tries to tap “SOS.” Joe continually taps out messages, but the nurse still does not understand. She tries to soothe him thinking that he is in a state of distress. Joe feels trapped inside his body. He is hopeless with no one able to understand what he is trying to say.

Johnny Got His Gun 5

Joe wants to master time so that he can get a sense of this new world that he is living in. He tries to remember different stories such as A Christmas Carol but is unable to because he never memorized it very well. Joe is frustrated because he is unable to recite simple things such as his times tables. Therefore, he decides to teach himself to tell time. Joe wants to do this because time is a way that he can be connected with everyone. Time is universal. Everyone knows how to tell time regardless of their ethnicity or language. Joe originally tries to count the seconds, minutes, and hours between the visits of the nurses, but he soon loses tracks of the seconds. He then decides to focus on trying to time his bed changes and bowel movements. He realizes that the nurse probably bathes him in the morning and visits him every two hours after that. Eventually, Joe is able to tell time, and he is even able to sense the environment around him. He is able to tell the sunrise apart from the sunset based solely on the temperature and warmth on his neck. He is also able to tell the nurses apart based on the vibrations that they make.

Johnny Got His Gun 4

Joe believes that concrete things are worth fighting for, and he does not think that ideals are worth fighting for. He claims that men go to war and do not even understand what they are fighting for. They may be fighting for liberty or honor, but in the end, how do they ever get what is won? Joe wants something concrete to fight for because at the conclusion of the war, even if he lost everything, he would still know what he won. Joe specifically mentions fighting for democracy. Several men died fighting for democracy, but when fighting, they did not think about fighting for democracy. When fighting, the soldiers were thinking of concrete objects like their friends and families.

Johnny Got His Gun 3

Joe realizes that he has a hole in his face that has yet to have healed. That night, he has a nightmare about a rat gnawing at his face. He has this dream because of something he saw when he was at war. Joe and some other soldiers found a Prussian soldier that had been dead for several weeks. They had found that a rat was chewing on the soldier’s face. The rat symbolizes Joe’s previous war experience. It shows that no one is really going to benefit from going to war. There are just going to be several deaths like the Prussian soldier that Joe stumbled upon. The rat shows that the people not fighting the war will benefit just like the rat that lives off of the flesh of the soldiers that died.

Johnny Got His Gun 2

One of Joe’s recollections is working at the bakery. The bakery was located in Los Angeles, and Joe remembers working late nights there. Joe remembers working at the bakery because he used to walk eleven miles to work each night. Joe cannot do that anymore because he had his legs amputated. Jose is a man that Joe works with at the bakery. Jose came to California so that he could find a job at a studio. Originally, Jose worked in New York City as a chauffeur for a wealthy family. He left his last job because the daughter of the man he worked for fell in love with him. The workers at the bakery initially don’t believe him until a letter arrives from the daughter who fell in love with him. One of the reasons that Joe likes Jose is because Jose had the audacity to leave the wealthy family to find a new job. Most people might decide to marry the daughter to inherit the money.