Johnny Got His Gun Effects Of War
Effects of War War: a duty that many honored members of the country must participate in to insure the rest of America's safety. A representation of liberty that is glorified to be a great thing. In reality war is nothing to glorify, it is much too horrific to be made into any sort of good. In the 1965 movie Shenandoah directed by Andrew V McLAglen, paired with the novel Johnny Got His Gun by dalton trumbo, examine the true effects of war, through following two very different settings. Shenandoah follows a large family through the civil war, as they do everything in their power to stay out of the conflict, but still their family members are killed, their land is looted, and they are mentally broken down. As for Johnny got his gun, the
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setting takes place during world war 1, while following a severely injured veteran that lost not only just his appendages, but his whole face including his eyes ears and mouth. LEaving him trapped in his own body which not only affected him physically, but in many other ways also. Both compositions thoroughly examine the impact of war on people due to its brutality. Although ¨Shenandoah” and ¨Johnny got his gun¨ approach the theme in different ways, they both clearly show the impacts of war emotionally, mentally and physically, by expressing emotions they usually wouldn't have, being permanently disabled or killed and a negatively impacted mental state.
The phrase emotional roller coaster perfectly describes the feelings of the characters in both JGHG and Shenandoah.
War, sends people through severe circumstances which cause them to feel emotions that they haven’t felt before. In shenandoah, the stress level that is put on to each of the characters even from the beginning, would have been non- existence prior to the war. The first evidence of this is when the father Charlie and one of his sons saw the soldiers out on the edge of their property, they were debating whether or not to stop them, but Charlie refused saying not to get involved, with his famous quote ¨Then it doesn't concern us¨ , but when events such as Boy getting kidnapped, or Sam having to go in the war, he follows with the quote of ¨Now it concerns us¨ (Shenandoah). Which infers how when they weren involved in the war, it wasn't their issue, but when it did concern them, the severity of their problems increased along with the stress level. Secondly, the main character Charlie is portrayed as a strong tough role model for his children prior to the war. But near the end of the movie he ends up almost crying when talking to his dead wife at the cemetery and starts to get more emotional than he usually does when talking about his late son and daughter in law. ¨I guess you're not so lonely any more, with Ann and James and Jacob. And maybe the boy. You didn't know Ann, did you? Well, you'd like her. You'd like her, Martha. Why, she and James are so much alike, they're just like... no...¨(Shenandoah) Saying this,breaks him out of his usually perceived tough guy
look.
From the first moment the andersons are introduced, the family comes off as put together good people. They pray as family, act very polite, and choose to be neutral and stay out of the way. But, when the men come onto their property insisting on buying or even juswith them. This led into a large out of character fight due to the pressures of the war from outside sources.
Whereas in Johnny , Joe expresses his emotions for the war in a much different way. Contrary to anger and stress, the main emotion he feels as an effect of the war is sadness and hopelessness. Throughout the beginning of the book after he realizes the state he is stuck in, Joe becomes very helpless and feels as if he doesn’t wanna keep living . ¨Maybe it would be a lot better if you were dead and buried on the hill across the river from Shale City.” (trumbo, 22) He shows immense sadness when he finds out he will never be able to live life he used to again. ¨He would never again be able to say hello how are you I love you. He would never again be able to hear music or the whisper of the wind through trees or the chuckle of running water.¨ (Trumbo 7) Throughout the first and second book of the novel, anger is somewhat prevalent also. In the first part, his anger is geared to his situation and how he ended up. He wonders how the doctors even kept him alive let alone why they would try to keep him alive in that state. ¨When doctors are only chopping things off they have ways of stopping the blood so that a man does not necessarily die from loss of it .Maybe if the doctors would have known how he would end up they would have let him die.¨ (Trumbo 84) He then transitions his anger towards the masters of war and the glorification of it, by saying “Did anybody ever come back from the dead any single one of the millions who got killed did any one of them ever come back and say by god I'm glad I'm dead because death is always better than dishonor?” (Trumbo) Through this quote, Je expresses how honor for your country does not have to be shown through dying and expresses just how strongly he feels about the propaganda of war. He feels very strongly bout how false the war is represented just by the amount of honor that is given by their death and sacrifice. The whole story line of Johnny got his gun is a self explanatory example of how war physically affects soldiers. From serving in the first world war, the story is based around the main character Joe who loses both of his arms, legs, and whole face. This leaving trapped to live inside only his mind and has little form of communication besides tapping his head in morse code. Joe says in chapter 3, ”This is war and war is hell and what the hell and so to hell with it.“ (Trumbo) Flashbacks that joe has of the war also shows physical effects of the war including the story of lazarus and of the curious soldier. The physical effects of this cause Joe to not only have pain on his body, but have much deeper effects mentally. Although In shenandoah, the physical effects aren’t as big, but are still shown by the deaths of Charlie’s two sons ,jacob and james and his wife Ann. Which end up causing an emotional effect on the rest of the family.
Throughout the novel of JGHG, the more that joe realizes what has happened to him due to the war, the more his mental health fluctuates. When the book starts out, his flashbacks begin happy such as when the hamburger man comes and he spends quality time with his parents on page 9. But as he starts to realize he has no arms, the memory of losing his ring and kareen, his hatred for the war begins along with his ability to handle his emotions. Slowly he begins to lose his grip as he realizes just what the war has done to him. He goes into depth with this in chapter 10 when he talks about liberty and how the glorification of war is ridiculous.
On the other hand, in Shenandoah the characters mentally , Even though the writers of Shenandoah used the life of a neutral family from the civil war and the writers of Johnny got his gun used a solider who was a victim of world war 1 they were both very effective in showing the severe long term effects of war on emotional, physical, and mental health.
setting takes place during world war 1, while following a severely injured veteran that lost not only just his appendages, but his whole face including his eyes ears and mouth. LEaving him trapped in his own body which not only affected him physically, but in many other ways also. Both compositions thoroughly examine the impact of war on people due to its brutality. Although ¨Shenandoah” and ¨Johnny got his gun¨ approach the theme in different ways, they both clearly show the impacts of war emotionally, mentally and physically, by expressing emotions they usually wouldn't have, being permanently disabled or killed and a negatively impacted mental state.
The phrase emotional roller coaster perfectly describes the feelings of the characters in both JGHG and Shenandoah.
War, sends people through severe circumstances which cause them to feel emotions that they haven’t felt before. In shenandoah, the stress level that is put on to each of the characters even from the beginning, would have been non- existence prior to the war. The first evidence of this is when the father Charlie and one of his sons saw the soldiers out on the edge of their property, they were debating whether or not to stop them, but Charlie refused saying not to get involved, with his famous quote ¨Then it doesn't concern us¨ , but when events such as Boy getting kidnapped, or Sam having to go in the war, he follows with the quote of ¨Now it concerns us¨ (Shenandoah). Which infers how when they weren involved in the war, it wasn't their issue, but when it did concern them, the severity of their problems increased along with the stress level. Secondly, the main character Charlie is portrayed as a strong tough role model for his children prior to the war. But near the end of the movie he ends up almost crying when talking to his dead wife at the cemetery and starts to get more emotional than he usually does when talking about his late son and daughter in law. ¨I guess you're not so lonely any more, with Ann and James and Jacob. And maybe the boy. You didn't know Ann, did you? Well, you'd like her. You'd like her, Martha. Why, she and James are so much alike, they're just like... no...¨(Shenandoah) Saying this,breaks him out of his usually perceived tough guy
look.
From the first moment the andersons are introduced, the family comes off as put together good people. They pray as family, act very polite, and choose to be neutral and stay out of the way. But, when the men come onto their property insisting on buying or even juswith them. This led into a large out of character fight due to the pressures of the war from outside sources.
Whereas in Johnny , Joe expresses his emotions for the war in a much different way. Contrary to anger and stress, the main emotion he feels as an effect of the war is sadness and hopelessness. Throughout the beginning of the book after he realizes the state he is stuck in, Joe becomes very helpless and feels as if he doesn’t wanna keep living . ¨Maybe it would be a lot better if you were dead and buried on the hill across the river from Shale City.” (trumbo, 22) He shows immense sadness when he finds out he will never be able to live life he used to again. ¨He would never again be able to say hello how are you I love you. He would never again be able to hear music or the whisper of the wind through trees or the chuckle of running water.¨ (Trumbo 7) Throughout the first and second book of the novel, anger is somewhat prevalent also. In the first part, his anger is geared to his situation and how he ended up. He wonders how the doctors even kept him alive let alone why they would try to keep him alive in that state. ¨When doctors are only chopping things off they have ways of stopping the blood so that a man does not necessarily die from loss of it .Maybe if the doctors would have known how he would end up they would have let him die.¨ (Trumbo 84) He then transitions his anger towards the masters of war and the glorification of it, by saying “Did anybody ever come back from the dead any single one of the millions who got killed did any one of them ever come back and say by god I'm glad I'm dead because death is always better than dishonor?” (Trumbo) Through this quote, Je expresses how honor for your country does not have to be shown through dying and expresses just how strongly he feels about the propaganda of war. He feels very strongly bout how false the war is represented just by the amount of honor that is given by their death and sacrifice. The whole story line of Johnny got his gun is a self explanatory example of how war physically affects soldiers. From serving in the first world war, the story is based around the main character Joe who loses both of his arms, legs, and whole face. This leaving trapped to live inside only his mind and has little form of communication besides tapping his head in morse code. Joe says in chapter 3, ”This is war and war is hell and what the hell and so to hell with it.“ (Trumbo) Flashbacks that joe has of the war also shows physical effects of the war including the story of lazarus and of the curious soldier. The physical effects of this cause Joe to not only have pain on his body, but have much deeper effects mentally. Although In shenandoah, the physical effects aren’t as big, but are still shown by the deaths of Charlie’s two sons ,jacob and james and his wife Ann. Which end up causing an emotional effect on the rest of the family.
Throughout the novel of JGHG, the more that joe realizes what has happened to him due to the war, the more his mental health fluctuates. When the book starts out, his flashbacks begin happy such as when the hamburger man comes and he spends quality time with his parents on page 9. But as he starts to realize he has no arms, the memory of losing his ring and kareen, his hatred for the war begins along with his ability to handle his emotions. Slowly he begins to lose his grip as he realizes just what the war has done to him. He goes into depth with this in chapter 10 when he talks about liberty and how the glorification of war is ridiculous.
On the other hand, in Shenandoah the characters mentally , Even though the writers of Shenandoah used the life of a neutral family from the civil war and the writers of Johnny got his gun used a solider who was a victim of world war 1 they were both very effective in showing the severe long term effects of war on emotional, physical, and mental health.