Dalton Trumbo

The story of a young boy and his tragic fate in World War I makes a statement on the horrors of war and a plea for peace

Johnny Got His Gun

Huiying 

They are saying that two and two make nothing. They are saying that a man will have to die in order to protect his life. If you agree to fight you agree to die. Now if you die to protect your life you aren't alive anyhow so how is there any sense in a thing like that? A man doesn't say I will starve myself to death to keep from starving. He doesn't say I will spend all my money in order to save my money. He doesn't say I will burn my house down in order to keep it from burning. Why then should he be willing to die for the privilege of living?

They were always fighting for something the bastards and if anyone dared say the hell with fighting it's all the same each war is like the other and nobody gets any good out of it why they hollered coward. If they weren't fighting for liberty they were fighting for independence or democracy or freedom or decency or honor or their native land or some thing else that didn't mean anything. The war was to make the world safe for democracy for the little countries for everybody. If the war was over now then the world must be all safe for democracy. Was it? And what kind of democracy? And how much? And whose? Then there was this freedom from another country? Freedom from work or diseases or death? Freedom from your mother-in-law? Please mister give us a bill of sale on this freedom before we go out and get killed. Give us a bill of sale drawn up plainly so we know in advance what we're getting killed for and give us also a first mortgage on something as security so we can be sure after we've won your war that we've got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.

Sarah S

Trumbo had a goal to ‘use art as a weapon for the future of mankind' and that is exactly what he did with Johnny Got His Gun with his revolting images that represent the real horrors of war and humanity. 

Joe Bonham, a young American soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an explosion. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Joe dazes through memories of his parents, of girlfriends, of more innocent days. Until he realizes that he has no arms, no legs and no face, struggling to grasp what is real and how to exist as "the nearest thing to a dead man on Earth". 

Johnny Got His Gun is truly a heartbreaking story, and the final piece to shatter your heart is the fact that the inspiration stemmed from a Canadian news article recounting a royal visit to a Canadian quadriplegic soldier who had been injured in World War I.

Kendall Gray

i believe this is my favorite book of all time and i will 10/10 recommend this to anyone

Johnny Got His Gun

Reviews

Highlights