Trumbo Fishing

The intense bond between father and son is full of subtle meanings and inferred emotions, but this bond remains strong nevertheless. This relationship has been examined time and time again, but Trumbo sheds new light on it when he focuses on the particular relationship of Joe and his father in “Johnny Got His Gun”. This passage looks at the significance of the annual fishing trip they take and the careful way in which they approach each other. When Joe’s friend Bill Harper decides to come to this sacred fishing event, the equilibrium of the whole relationship is questioned. Trumbo combines the use of perspective, syntax, and specific selection of detail in order to depict the precarious balance of their father-son relationship during the confusing
course of Joe’s adolescence.
The first details that are shared with the reader are the descriptions of the peaceful fishing area that Joe and his father return to every year.
The isolated setting is illustrated right away to show how they go on this trip primarily to be with each other and strengthen their bond, even if they do not necessarily discuss it as this. Trumbo includes in the passage that the fishing area is “…nine thousand feet high and covered with pine trees and dotted with lakes,” because he wants to convey how far away from civilization Joe and his father travel every year for this specific trip. The fishing trip in actuality is just an excuse they use to hide the true reason they go to this fishing area, which is that they both appreciate the strong bond of their relationship and never want it to disintegrate. Trumbo also chooses to share the fact that the father’s fishing rod is a revered item to him, and as Joe recalls it is “…perhaps the only extravagance his father had had in his whole life.” He divulges this detail after Joe’s father selflessly offers him his fishing rod to borrow when he goes fishing with Bill Harper. This offer holds great significance because of how deeply important that item is to his father, and Joe understands the message that he is sending him when he does this. The offer of the fishing rod is a metaphor for the profound love his father has for Joe, and so this proposal is essential in maintaining their powerful bond. Even during adolescence, a time when Joe
is unsure of how to balance friends and family, his father recognizes and accepts the changes in their relationship to make the transition easier for his son.
A third-person limited point of view is used in this story, and it is told from Joe’s perspective.
This is essential to the portrayal of the story because it includes Joe’s thoughts and feelings about the father-son relationship, but does not include his father’s. Joe elucidates that, “Tomorrow for the first time in all their trips together he wanted to go fishing with someone other than his father.” By sharing this information he is acknowledging that it is a milestone of sorts in their relationship, because never in the eight years they have come to this place together has either of them gone fishing with anyone else but each other. Using Joe’s perspective on this event allows the reader to speculate on how his father will react, and to infer what his true feelings actually are below the surface. The reader can clearly see the extent to which Joe is struggling with breaking the news to his father. He admits that, “It was an ending and a beginning and he wondered just how he should tell his father.” The fact that Joe is so cautious of his father’s feelings shows how much he cares for him, but it also confirms the idea that the balance of their relationship has been slightly disrupted with the onset of Joe’s adolescence. This is the time when he attempts to tiptoe around his father’s feelings in order to slightly break free from tradition as he grows up. His father’s point of view is not shared during this story, so the reader must analyze his interaction with Joe to
discover how he feels about their changing relationship.