How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
You're worth nothing dead except for speeches. Don't let them kid you any more. Pay no attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we've got to fight for liberty or whatever their word is there's always a word. (10.26)
If propaganda is the manipulation of speech and ideas, then the dead actually become complicit in the thing that lured them to their demise in the first place, and it becomes a vicious cycle: Joe's point is that once you die in a war, you become a statistic that politicians and others in power can use for whatever purpose they want. Also, what does it mean when Joe suggests that the world "liberty" could be replaced with another? Is liberty just a pretext? Does it mean anything to those in power?
Quote #5
America expects every man to do his duty France expects every man to do his duty England expects every man to do his duty every doughboy and tommy and poilu and what the hell did they call the Italians? anyhow they're expected to do their duty too. (14.27)
Here, the language of propaganda is so flimsy that you can pretty much replace one country with any other country, and it won't change the meaning at all. What is this "duty" people are supposed do? Why are they supposed to do it? Who are they doing it for?
Quote #6
He would show himself to the little guys and to their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and wives and sweethearts and grandmothers and grandfathers and he would have a sign over himself and the sign would say here is war and he would concentrate the whole war into such a small piece of meat and bone and hair that they would never forget it was long as they lived. (19.12)
Remember how earlier in the novel, Joe complained that liberty was just a word you couldn't even point to? It's like he's trying to do the reverse here by making the notion of war into something concrete: his messed-up body. His body shows what the war costs in terms of individual lives: Johnny Got His Gun tries to make us see past statistics and understand the importance of each individual life.