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Summary: Captivating and powerful anti-war novel
Review: Johnny Got His Gun is the most captivating and powerful anti-war novel that I have ever read. It is a story of a young American man by the name of Joe Bonham who is drafted into World War I and gets blown up while he is there. Dalton Trumbo, the author, takes his readers through a breathtaking journey of this one man's struggle with life. Joe becomes quadriplegic and he loses all his senses except touch because of the explosion during the war. How could a man survive in such a world in which he could not communicate. Trumbo uses Joe's mind as a reason for this will to stay alive. He takes us through the memories of his life before he entered the war. From meaningful memories of him and his dad fishing together to nonsense memories of when he worked in a bakery and a man named Jose threw cherry pies on the floor. When Joe awakes from his long sleep, he finds himself lying in a hospital bed hopeless, lifeless. Joe begins to realize that even though he has lost all his limbs he's still a human being with feelings, thoughts, and emotions. He can still think for himself and use his mind in a meaningful manner. As he lays there in his death bed he begins to wonder about time, what day it is or how many days have come and gone. Joe begins to use his mind to find out all the things he wonders. He begins to track the nurses schedules be feeling the vibrations from their footsteps, and then he would count the seconds that passed until the next visit. Trumbo shows us how Joe wants to be able to communicate by using Morse Code. After a long hard struggle his day nurse is finally able to understand that Joe is trying to communicate to her. She responds to him by writing letters on his chest over and over again until he gets the word. His day nurse brings in a doctor to see what Joe is trying to tell them. Trumbo shows that Joe wants to explain to the world that war can do to you and how fighting for nothing is pointless and risking your life for nothing is unthinkable. The doctor then informs Joe that his wishes cannot be granted because it is against regulations. His hopes are shattered, all that he has done to try to communicate and try to stay alive and think about all the good that he has done is gone. Joe's world turns black and fades away. Johnny Got His Gun is the most captivating anti-war novel out there. Dalton Trumbo does an exceptional job in explaining to us the life of a young man who lives as a stump because of the tragedy in the war. He conveys to us how to live with your mind and not your body. This intense and emotional book is filled with vivid language and detailed thoughts that will take your breath away. This is a MUST read for everyone.
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Summary: The "living-dead"
Review: Johnny Got His Gun is the most invigorating piece of writing I've ever read. It's a fiction novel about a young American survivor name Joe Bonham who was injured during World War I. Being a survivor of the war, Joe desperately wanted to die. He survived through a bomb blast with no arms, legs, nose, eyes, ears, and mouth including all of his teeth. Using captivating yet simple words, Dalton Trumbo descriptively guided the reader through an intensifying, unimaginable, and unforgettable nightmare of Joe Bonham. Losing his five senses and his ability to walk and talk, Joe lay on his hospital's bed thinking about the past. Slipping in and out of sleep unknowingly, Joe didn't know what time of day it was, whether he was awake or asleep dreaming. One time, he saw a rat crawling toward him and then feed itself on the unhealable wound on the side of his stomach. Imagine losing all your senses, your ability to move, and think of a fat rat feeding on your own flesh and blood everyday but you just couldn't do anything about it. Wouldn't that be a horrible life to live? Nevertheless, Trumbo brought Joe back to the real world through the most powerful tool of the human body, the mind. Using his mind, Joe was able to page time, his surroundings, how many people were in his room, and eventually communicates with the outside world. By creating Joe, who sacrificed his life for war and for his country and all he wanted in return was to die because what's left of him is lifeless, Trumbo also created an extraordinary, emotionally, intense and unforgettable book. Johnny Got His Gun immediately became the bestseller of its time. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes reading about the horrors of war and the emotions of a "living-dead" soldier.
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Summary: A young man who loses his five sense during the war.
Review: In the novel Johnny Got His Gun , Dalton Trumbo writes an anti-war novel from the point of view of an injured infantryman (Joe Bonham). It is a story of a young man who loses his arms, legs, and his face after the war and still survives. It was a story where readers develop their imaginations the realities of the survivors of the war. The book uses powerful words that give readers a flood of intense emotions. The book was so terrifying, imagining a man without his five senses and still survive was so horrible. Trumbo's novel was very good and I would definitely recommend it for people who haven't read the book, but the only thing that I didn't like was he jumps around in time and place with his characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful novel about a young man who survived WWI
Review: Dalton Trumbo writes a powerful novel about a young man who has survived the horrors of World War I. His survival however is such that the only thing he is capable of is thinking. In this war he loses both arms, legs, both eyes, both ears his nose and his jaw. He is a living stump. This young man's name is Joe Bohnam, a regular guy who is drafted in the army at the age of twenty, before his life can really begin. Trumbo makes Joe a very real person. He takes Joe and the readers back to Joe's life before the war by using memories that Joe thinks about in the hospital bed. Memories such as when Joe and his father went camping and fishing and he lost his father's prized fishing pole or when Joe was working at a bakery and a co-worker wanted to leave but couldn't because he didn't want to be disrespectful. With memories of his friends and family Trumbo makes Joe's loss all the more real. Towards the end of this book Joe does everything he can to try to communicate with the "outside" and finally suceeds with his new day nurse who understands that his "siezures" are his attempts at Morse code and that he is indeed aware of his surroundings. When she goes to look for someone who can decipher his code Joe starts thinking about how he can spread the message that war is a bad thing and that if you go to war you could turn out like him, a stump. Trumbo uses moments like these and others to tell the reades how gruesome and unromantic war really is. He uses equations such as "...3,000 tons of bone and flesh, 124,000 pounds of brain matter..." to wake us up to the realities of war. Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel that keeps your attention so you can get to know Joe both before and after the war and how this can happen to anyone.
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Summary: Fantastic
Review: Read this book, and thank your lucky stars you're able to.
Rating:
Summary: It will make your stomach hurt.
Review: It's been a while since I read this, but when I was browsing and it popped up I thought it worth of a review. There are many difficult questions about war, and after reading this your answers may change. A great book.
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Summary: horrifyingscary. makes you thi
Review: scary. makes you think
Rating: 
Summary: Rent the movie first
Review: The plot behind this story is incredible, however, I found that Trumbo tainted the story with weak writing. In some instances the book almost seemed to be written in the stream of concious style. I found the prolouge to the story far more frightening than the book itself. This book is scary because the plot is believable. I'm sure this novel only begins to break the surface of the hoorors of war. The film version is much more convincing than the novel but I would check out both. I found both the film and novel hard to find until it was re-released by Bantamn books. Also go out on a limb and check out the Metallica home video "Two of One." The band made a seriously haunting video composed with chilling clips and movie voice overs intermingled with rehearsal performance. A truly frightening message in a compact format.
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Summary: A must read for every student
Review: First off, I am 13 and not many students at my school have read this book, but I must say, it was incredible. This book really made me think about life and death and war. It is really more about war, it is about censorship. Everyone is censored everyday when you can't speak your mind at work because of your fear of the boss and can't say something to someone at school for fear of getting written up or whatever. This book is a must read for students and teachers alike. Anyone thinking of enrolling into the army or any other government funded operation should read this. It makes you think of those who didn't make it back and are still there. You can't just give them away and make it look nice. War is evil and brutal. I think the world should be able to think as one as it was first intended, but this is just a dream of mine as many will say. If you want somemore information on this book from my perspctive, email me.
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Summary: Emotional
Review: Trumbo provides a gritty, touching, and all too real story. Not for the faint of heart, but for those who can take it, a very involving read. Prepare to shed tears for the most pitiable of men. Prepare to be convinced once and for all war is not a good idea.
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