Johnny Got His Gun (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Dalton Trumbo
- First Published: 1939
- Type of Plot: War
- Time of Work: The first two decades of the twentieth century
- Setting: Shale City, Colorado; Los Angeles, California; and a hospital room in an unknown country
- Principal Characters: Joe Bonham, Coreen, Bill Harper, Nurse, José
- Genres: Long fiction, War fiction
- Subjects: Psychology or psychologists, Violence, World War I, Soldiers, Horror
- Locales: Los Angeles, CA, Colorado
The Novel
Johnny Got His Gun is a modified stream-of-consciousness narrative occurring in the mind of a soldier whose arms, legs, ears, eyes, nose, and mouth have been blown away in a bomb blast during World War I. Written by Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, the novel is told using cinematic techniques, particularly in book 1, “The Dead,” which is a fusion of flashbacks and soliloquies in the mind of Joe Bonham.
Awakening in a hospital bed, Bonham first remembers the announcement of his father’s death. Recalling sensory images of his youth, Bonham...
[The entire page is 2081 words long]
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