Whose faction is justified in their cause? What is the meaning of freedom? Who defines it after all, and when will we ever be free? It is written to linger, leaving behind important questions that have no easy answers. Its intent is to agonise us, never compromising in violence and brutality. But it is an essential manifesto that means to shock its readers. The heavy emotions are relentless, making this thin novel a difficult read. It forces a look at the working class sacrificed in the name of their country, their only legacy a statistic. Through his stream of thoughts, we learn about his juvenile naivety and blind patriotism as a youth, exploited for the political aims of an invisible elite. Inspired by real-life soldier Ethelbert “Curley” Christian, Bonham’s gruesome circumstance provokes deep reflection of the true costs of war. However inconceivable his pain must be, we come close to knowing the victim and how he feels in these vividly written pages. Trapped in someone else’s war and consequently his own body, Joe Bonham becomes a man who finds no reason to live, yet cannot die. The horrors of his position is unimaginable.

Unable to tell if he is alive or dead, he struggles to come to terms with his disfigurement and hold onto his slipping soul by recalling his idyllic past. The story centres on the tragic fate of one young soldier, who wakes to find himself blind, mute, deaf and paralysed.

With Johnny Got His Gun, prolific writer and filmmaker Dalton Trumbo presents one of the most harrowing imageries in war literature, by giving a voice to the voiceless. In news or fiction, each account of its dire costs is a call for pacifism. Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1939) – A young American soldier awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell.Ī haunting anti-war manifesto, Johnny Got A Gun echoes with relevance even today.Įvery war narrative is essentially anti-war.

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo