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Joes Loses The most horrific part of the novel Johnny Got His Gun is the fact that Joe Bonham (the protagonist) is stripped of all he has and left with only his life and a sense of touch. His arms, legs and face have been blown off while fighting for democracy in the first world war. In addition to all his extremities and face he is also stripped of his vision, his hearing, his taste and smell. He is only left with a vague sense of touch on what he has left of his body.
Being essentially robbed of everything he has ever known would be way too much of a shock for Joe. For most people the shock of losing any limb would be devastating almost unbearable. However a loss of Joes extent if it were to be discovered all at once could have overwhelmed him, either driven him to insanity or causing him to totally give up and die. By having Joe find out about each of his loss separately it adds more horror to Joes situation. It also keeps the reader of the story into the book, if someone found out the extent of Joes injuries all at once you might not continue to read the story, thinking that there is nothing else that Joe can gain or lose except his life. As Joe comes too from an undisclosed amount of time he realizes what he has lost limb by limb sense by sense.
The very first thing he realizes he has lost is his hearing (pg 10) at first Joe tries to maintain optimistic thinking at least he wont have to listen to the horrible sounds of battle. Then Joe realizes that he has lost his left arm (pg 26) and he thinks of his wedding ring that used to be on the now missing hand. Foretelling the lose of Joes wife from his life as well. Joes then realizes that he has lost both arms (pg 39) This causes him to think about swimming with his wife and then he dreams hes drowning and when he wakes up he realizes he has lost both legs also (pg 60).
Then as he dares to mentally explore the rest of his body he realizes that his face has been blown off also. This devastates Joe as he realizes he has nothing left at all. He prays its a dream and thinks of his mother. The spacing out of his loss gives more sympathy to Joe and makes him more intriguing to read about. Christs Involvement In Johnny Got His Gun The story of Christs birth and Christs incorporation in the story is very important. As there are many parallels between Joe and Christ.
In the book Johnny got his Gun, Joe is the only soldier who is seen injured at all. It is unknown weather or not any of the other soldiers in Joes group were injured at all. Almost as if Joe took the bombshell for the rest of his group even though he didnt realize he was doing it. Much like Christ died for the sins of all Christians. In the same way as Christ was reborn after his death, Joe essentially is reborn when he begins to count days and essentially has something to live for again. Christ from Tucson is a character that Joe dreams about.
He plays cards with dead soldiers who are in a train station on there way to Heaven. Some of the soldiers are predicting the days that they are going to die and what they have to do before that time. When the soldiers see Joe they ask what is he doing at the station he isnt dead. Joe than explains that he is worse off than dead that he will have all his arms and legs and face blown off and will still be left alive. A soldier remarks hes worse off than any of us. hes alright leave him alone.
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Research essay sample on Johnny Got His Gun Realizes He Has Lost Joe
