Johnny Got His Gun

This excerpt from “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo analyzes the relationship between a growing young boy, Joe, and his father. The author tells us that every summers since Joe was seven, he and his father would come to this same place to camp and fish. Joe is now fifteen and his friend, Bill Harper, is coming tomorrow and for the first time Joe is wanting to fish with Bill instead of his father. Through third person point of view, short, simple sentence structure and purposeful selection of detail the author allows the reader to carefully examine the relationship between Joe and his father. Through third person point of view the author allows us to understand that Joe and his father have a very quiet relationship together. When Joe tells his father he has decided to fish with Bill Harper, “for a little while his father didn't say anything.” He then said that it was fine. It is easy to see a the quiet relationship they have through this. Although it is obvious there are much deeper feelings than that the author makes it clear this is how many conversations with the pair go. It even appears as though the relationship might not be that close between them. The author also says “when they slept at night the roar of water from the streams which connected the lakes sounded in their ears all night long,” which shows the almost over powering silence in the relationship. The silence was so strong it seemed to “roar” in their ears. With the use of short, simple syntax the author conveys the idea of the simplicity of Joe and his father's relationship. The lack of punctuation with neither quotation marks nor commas further highlights the fact that the relationship between the two is so simple. Perhaps even more important, there are no complex sentences. All of the sentences are in fact short and simple which harp on the simplicity of it all. When asking his father about fishing with Bill Harper, Joe says “I thought maybe I'd go out with him,” to simplify the