Johnny Got His Gun
March 3, 2008 Authors, Books, Issues, People, Uncategorized 2 Comments
Johnny Got His Gun is an American anti-war novel, written in 1938 by Dalton Trumbo. Published in 1939, the novel illustrates the cruelty of war through the perspective of an American soldier named Joe Bonham.
During WWI, Joe suffers a debilitating injury from an artillery shell. He wakes up to a new reality — life in a hospital bed with no limbs or ears, not even a face. Joe is also stripped of his communicative capacities, unable to see, speak or hear. The text reveals a state of near lifelessness and the following nine years depict his observations, thoughts of past and present and the torment of a life confined to the mind.
Johnny Got His Gun is often used for studies in American proletarian literature, as it critiques the manner in which war effects different social classes — the upper class initiates and profits from war, while the lower class fights and dies for it.
About the Author
Dalton Trumbo was originally from Colorado. In 1925, he moved to California and started working at a bakery in Los Angeles. He eventually developed a successful career as a writer, working for large names like Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures.
Following WWII, Trumbo was among a number of people in the entertainment industry called to testify before McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities. For refusing to answer questions about involvement with the Communist Party, Trumbo and nine others became known as the Hollywood Ten. He served a year in prison and was blacklisted from the film industry until 1959.