How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Why then should he be willing to die for the privilege of living? (10.18)
Joe's already alive, so why should he fight in order to live? In the context of World War I, at least, no one is actually threatening his life; he's not fighting out of any kind of self-defense. So what's the point?
Quote #8
He was the nearest thing to a dead man on earth. (10.22)
Johnny Got His Gun can get pretty surreal at times, but we think Joe is being literal here: maybe he really is the nearest thing to a dead man on earth. Even Joe, of course, can't really tell us what death itself is like, so whether he can actually speak for the dead is debatable. He can still speak for himself, though, and you could say his situation is at least as scary as death.
Quote #9
There's nothing noble about dying. (10.24)
Talk about a subversive statement. Is it shocking? Powerful? Insulting? Whatever you think of the statement, Joe's point is that death is something huge and personal, so sending people to their deaths (random and meaningless deaths, in Joe's opinion) for an abstract cause in a war like World War I seems especially horrible to him.