johnny Got His Gun #8

It's hard to say exactly what Joe wants. He goes through alot of things he wants. When the question was first posed to him he thought of all the body parts he was missing and how much he wanted those back. "He wanted a nose so he could smell rain and burning wood and cooking food and the faint perfume that stays in the air after a girl has passed by." But he realized these were things they should know he wanted and he knew they couldn't give them to him. He then thought more realistically. He wanted to get out and feel the air, the presence of other people. Joe hated being trapped in his room all day. He also wanted to be put on display to show people the causes of war, that war had repercussions and that it wasn't pretty. He wanted to expose war in its truest form. But this was not possible. They never say why exactly, but Joe gives us some explanation. They didn't want people to see him, and realize how hideous and terrible war is. This would discourage people from enlisting and fighting. They wanted to keep him locked away in his room, so nobody would be exposed to the bad side of war.

Johnny Got His Gun #7

In these chapters, Joe is put into a drugged induced sleep so he would quit moving around and making noise. He thought to himself that they were winning again. In his sleep, he dreamt he was in at a train station where a mother who had recently bailed her son out of jail, and had to send him to war. She was deeply saddened because she fought hard to bail him out only to lose him to the war. Joe sees the son and realizes he is Christ. Joe, Christ, and other soldiers board the train and join in a game of cards. They speak about war, and how they know exactly how they are going to die. However, someone doesn't belong and that person is Joe. His fate is different somehow, and they all know it. Christ explains to them what Joe's fate is, making the party realize that he is worse off than the rest. So, Joe jumps off the train to mercy himself at the feet of Christ, because he does not wish to suffer the way he does. This is very symbolic because Christ could do anything, and was the redeemer and saver. He could have saved Joe. In some ways, Joe wishes he had stayed on the train because the train was like a portal to death. And Joe wanted to die rather than suffer in his state.

Johnny Got His Gun #6

• In chapter 13 Joe experiences something new and interesting. His schedule of nurses is disrupted when a group of men enter his room and examine him placing something around his neck. Joe comes to the conclusion that these men are generals come to give him a medal, which only offends him. During this interaction Joe figures out he can move his arms and head, and twist and turn his body. After this confrontation, he remembers how he and Bill Harper used to communicate between their houses Morse code. This is what his tapping was. Joe began tapping with hopes of someone hearing his cry out for help. This was his first step towards communicating with the real world.

johnny Got His Gun #5

• Joe realizes that all he has left is his mind. It’s the only thing he can control, and that all he can do is think. He feels disconnected with the rest of the world, and decides to do something about it. Through much thought and philosophizing he comes to the realization that he can feel connected with the outside world by keep track of time. Joe says that when it comes down to it time is the only thing connects us. If he has a sense of time he can be in the same world as everybody else, instead of lagging behind lost in his own mind. He may not be able to interact with the outside world, but by telling time he can feel a part of it. He tackles this difficult tasks a few different ways; a sort of a hit & miss course of action. He first attempts to count every second, minute, and hour as if he were a clock; however, this was much to complicated for his brain to handle. So, he took to counting the nurse visits, then bowel movements. Eventually, he realized that his mind wasn’t the only thing he had left. With the loss of his sight, smell, hearing and voice, he still had one thing- touch. He could feel his skin; feel the nurses and the vibrations they make with their movement. Joe had a few atches of skin which he could use to feel the heat of sunlight and use that information to figure out how many nurse visits equaled one day. He kept a mental calendar this way and was able to celebrate holidays with his friends and family through memories inside his mind.

Johnny Got His Gun #4

Joe believes that many people in the army fight for liberty, justice and democracy. They fight for their country. He believes this is not worth fighting for. He doesn't think people should be fighting for a word. Rather, they should be fighting for something tangible, some one. One should fight for your sister, but not the word 'sister'- not all of the sisters in the world. You fight for your own sister.

Confronted with the rat devouring your flesh, one's view on what it is they fight for changes. We see this with Joe. He believes you should fight for someone, or in his case, your own existence. He comes to the conclusion that he fights for his self, which seems selfish. He wonders if they fight for the liberty of their country or the world as a whole. If they fight for the liberty of their country only, it seems selfish just as is fighting for yourself.

Johnny Got His Gun #3

In a dream, Joe envisions a rat eating his flesh. He then remembers a moment during the war in which he finds a rat eating the rotting flesh of a dead Prussian soldiers. The soldier had been laying there for several days.

The rat represents the attitude of the war. It represents the real enemy of the soldiers- death. Its not each other because when you're laying on the ground dying you are no longer fighting a person. You are fighting the rat, who is devouring you. You are struggling to live. Neither side of the battle, according to Joe, benefit from war. They lose a lot such as Joe did. The only thing in this scenario which benefits from this is the rat. It doesn't die nor has to fight.

Johnny Got His Gun #2

I'm not quite sure why joe was remembering his experience at the bakery. My guess would be one of two. He was remembering it because he felt betrayed by Bill Harper, Diane and Glen Hogan because of their dishonorable ways. So, he remembered this because in his dream here was a man who was very honorable, Jose. He was loyal and didn't want to disrespect anyone, unlike Joe's 'friends'. My other guess would be that he is remembering a time when he had all of his limbs and could use them properly.

Joe thinks he is a very admirable guy. He regards him in high honor almost. At first he and the workers thought he was lying about why he is homeless. As it turns out he wasn't, and they figure this out through a letter written by the wealthy daughter to Jose. They soon realize he takes a lot of pride in what he does. When he was searching for a way to get fired or quit, he rejected the workers' suggestions. He deemed them to be to dishonorable, as he is a very honorable person. And so is Joe, which is why he admires him so. This is why Joe was not able to forgive Bill Harper, Diane or Glen Hogan.

Johnny Got His Gun #1

Joe's situation is that he is bandaged up in a hospital and deaf due to battle injuries. In a dream we find out that he worked in a bakery as a child. Also through this dream we find out his father has died from sickness. So far we know he was in a bunker when he obtained the injuries and some explosion went off near him taking his hearing and injuring him badly. He wasn't to distraught about it because he wouldn't have to listen to the calamities of war. It also severely injured his arms, which the doctors had to remove, along with the ring Kareen gave him.

He compares his situation with drowning because of the constant struggle to stay conscious. "As he came to the surface each time he fainted into reality and as he went down again he fainted into nothingness." He was fighting and struggling for air and life, similar to how someone gasps for air when drowning. He explains how it was a sensation of drifting in and out of reality, as if floating. Everytime he got above the water he would just sink back into the water, so to speak. Joe then noticed he could just float on his back as he did when swimming as a child.

bell Jar #10

She thinks that he would be a good person for her to sleep with because he 'looked promising'. But it was only after he took her to his study that she decided to seduce him. She felt that her first had to be intelligent and experienced, since she lacked it. He was a professor so he had smarts and his lady friend reassured Esther that he had experience. She also wanted someone who would she didn't really know and wouldn't ever have to see them again. What really reassured her was that she had been 'defending' her virginity for so long and it was about time she lost it. She was sick of being a virgin.

After getting it on with Irwin she definitely does not feel better because, as she explained, it was painful. It wasn't the transformation she was expecting. In a way, she was relieved to not have that burden anymore.