How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
That was a funny thing. The young Limey had legs and arms and he could talk and see and hear. Only he didn't know it he couldn't get any fun out of it there was no meaning to it for him. And lying in another English hospital was a guy who wasn't a bit crazy but who wished he was. He and the young Limey should swap minds. Then they'd both be happy. (12.30)
Part of the horror of Joe's situation comes from the fact that he is totally, completely lucid about everything. This is one of the reasons he thinks he is able to speak for the dead. Are you convinced by his logic?
Quote #5
Then he could talk. Then he would have smashed through his silence and blackness and helplessness. (13.18)
Okay, let's get meta. Communication becomes the only real way that Joe can "escape" his confinement, since there is no way for him to get physically better. The ability to be acknowledged as a person with thoughts would, in a sense, give Joe at least a small sliver of his life back. So, okay, Joe doesn't succeed at getting his message out to the world in the end, but what about the book itself? Isn't that Joe's message? And isn't it out in the world? There was at least one real person out there in Joe's situation whose story inspired Trumbo to write this novel: does Johnny Got His Gun help that person tell his story, even if he never knew that it would be told?
Quote #6
It never seemed to occur to her that there was a mind an intelligence working behind the rhythm of his head against the pillow […] She never thought that to be dumb was a sickness and that he had found the cure for it that he was trying to tell her he was well he was not dumb any longer he was a man who could talk. (14.2)
It's easy to write Joe off as just another casualty of war, but trouble starts to brew when he demands to be heard and recognized as an individual. Why doesn't anybody want to take the time to listen to poor old Joe? Is it because it's easier to forget about him? How do you think people rationalize forgetting about him like this?