Johnny Got His Gun

Johnny Got His Gun

Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun tells the story of a young man, Joe Bonham, who has been left limbless, deaf, mute, and blind after suffering an injury in World War I. Throughout the novel, which covers four years of Joe's life in the hospital bed, he reminisces about his childhood and everything else leading up to the time of his injury. Even though he made the decision to serve in the army, he now denounces the war and the government's reasons for fighting. Left to do nothing but think, he spends his days contemplating why he ever left the comforts of his old life and agreed to fight. Although he has several reasons not to go to war, including the facts that wars are fought for vague and meaningless ideas and that nothing is bigger than life, he does decide that there are two just causes for fighting.

Joe's first and most poignant criticism of war is his belief that wars are fought for vague and meaningless ideas. Before entering World War I, Joe was encouraged to join the army to fight for ideas such as democracy, liberty, freedom, and womanhood. Although they seem to make sense and be worth fighting for, Joe stresses that they are all merely abstract words and ideals that can never truly be achieved. When discussing liberty, he emphasizes its vagueness by stating "But a guy says come on let's fight for liberty and he can't show you liberty. He can't prove the things he's talking about so how in the hell can he be telling you to fight for it?" (110). He describes freedom and democracy in similar ways, describing how they are all illusive terms, meaning different things with varied levels of significance for different people.

Joe goes on to mock the importance the government places on these terms when he says that if something was worth dying for, than that something would be important enough to be thinking about in their last living moments. He asks "So did all those kids die thinking of democracy and freedom and liberty and honor and the safety of the home and the stars and the stripes forever? You're god dam right they didn't" (117). He believes that these terms are nothing more than words that the government has used to convince the "little guys" that their lives are worth losing for their country.

In order to fight a just war, all criterion of the Just War Criteria must be met. Joe's first criticism of the war, fighting for vague and meaningless ideas, fails to meet the Just Cause criteria. The Just Cause criteria states that when you go to war, it should be because of a real and present danger and this danger should be a threat to things necessary for a decent human existence. According to Joe, the government's reasons for war are to defend democracy, liberty, freedom, and womanhood. Joe believes that losing these things are not a real and present danger because they are simply vague ideas and words. Additionally, he does not find them necessary for a decent human existence.

I believe that Joe's first criticism of fighting a war is flawed. This is due to the fact that I believe that terms such as democracy, liberty, and freedom are much more than simply words as Joe states. These ideas are the foundation of our country and we would not be the most successful nation in the world without them. Although Joe apparently cannot fully understand these ideas and appreciate their worth, I think most of America can and does. I also believe that going to war to defend these ideas does meet the Just Cause criteria because losing our nation's democracy, liberty, and freedom, would be a real and present danger and the loss of these ideas would be a threat to a decent human existence.

The next criticism that Joe has of fighting in the war is the fact that nothing is bigger than life, and that dying to protect life is absurd. During his time in the hospital bed, Joe believes that he is the closest thing to death, and therefore has the authority to speak on the behalf of the dead. Accordingly, Joe goes on to say that there is nothing worth giving up life and that "I would trade democracy for life. I would trade independence and honor and freedom and decency for life. I will give you all these things and you give me the power to walk and see and hear and breath the air and taste my food" (118). He would trade anything for life.

Joe continues to talk about how the government recruits the "little guys" by telling them that the principles, or words as Joe calls them, of democracy, freedom, and liberty are world dying for. Joe disagrees and urges the "little guy," "If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life you say miser you're a liar. Nothing is bigger than life. There's nothing noble in death" (119). He wants people to reconsider the importance of their lives compared to the importance of