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 Joe’s 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’s separately it adds more horror to Joe’s situation. It also keeps the reader of the story into the book, if someone found out the extent of Joe’s 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 (pg10) 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 (pg26) and he thinks of his wedding ring that used to be on the now missing hand. Foretelling the lose of Joe’s wife from his life as well. Joe’s then realizes that he has lost both arms (pg39) This causes him to think about swimming with his wife and then he dreams he’s drowning and when he wakes up he realizes he has lost both legs also (pg60). Then as he dares to mentally explore the rest of his body he real...
