LITERARY ANALYSIS
JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN
The book Johnny Got His Gun was made into a movie in the late 1960's. It was an easy transition from novel to screenplay for Trumbo, since the book was written as a movie. "Trumbo's foremost career was as a screenwriter in the first half of the century" (Brucculi 326), and he uses ,any of his native film techniques in order to make the book very visual. An example of these film techniques are the use of fadeouts in order to signify a loss of conscious (Cook 447). Hemingway also uses fadeouts to signify blackouts as a result of injury or death (Reynolds 9). Trumbo alo uses a collage style called montage. Montage is a film technique where audio is blended together in order to make an entire scene rather than just one converstaion. This is most evident when Hoe Bonham is departing from war. "BIts and pieces of talk between Joe and his girl Kareen are jumbled with an orator's highfalutin rhetoric, shouts from the crowd, and lines from Over There, the George M. Cohan war anthem that gave the novel its title"(Cook 446), the inspiration provided by the song is coincidental with the inspiration Hemingway drew from the John Donne poem "No Man Is An Island," which also gave the novel its name(Reynolds 7). Flashbacks, another movie technique, also give scenic images that play a role in the story. Many of these flashbacks relate to Trumbo's own past, for he worked in a Los Angeles bakery, and was raised in Grand Junction, Colorado(Bruccoli 326). "Each of Bonham's memories are sharp and incisive, introduced logically, and each is essential for the novel's structure"(Cook 446). Likewise, Hemingway also incrporates his experiances into his book, by using memries and views of the Spanish Covil War which he viewed as a reporter(Reynolds 10).
In most novels the author manipulates the reader subconsciously using common literary devices which go unnoticed. Trumbo and Hemingway use these devices to fool the reader's mind into misinterpreting such factors as time, setting, and understanding of charecters. Although the time frame is unspecified,"Trumbo manages to create the impression that it is a rather considerable duration, several year ceratinly"(Cook 447). One way Trumbo does this is by focusing out attention firmly on JOe so that his subjective experiance of passing time, whether faulty or not, is totally believable. Hemingway experiments with the limits of a narrative in his own way, extending the possibilities of how a story can be told. "One of his earliest dicoveries was the curious effect of skewed and shifting points of view" (Reynolds 10). The results of this is Hemingway's narrator can tell the thoughts of many individuals, and thus not one charecter telling, but that of many. Time is not the only sense mainipulated by Trumbo. "To maccomplish the senseof hearing someone's thoughts Trumbo uses a modified stream of conscu=iousness technique and deviated from it only at the end of the novel"(Cook 447). Hemingway does the same "an omniscient point of viewwhich encompasses the whole range of narrative voices inside one story"(Reynolds 10). Also the book is very static for a narrative because the only real action comes in the second part of Joe's breakthrough to the outside world(Cook 447).
The author of a bok can only change the reader's focus by writing to allow a realistic story. Hemingway uses an awkward language of English and Spnaish slang,"that keeps the reader on edge and intrested in the literature"(WIlson 444). An example of this "...But I am jealous...I am not a tortillera but a woman made for men"(Hemingway 254). The word tortillera is Spanish slang for lesbian. On the other hand, Trumbo does this by using a specific writing style called satcato in order to simulate the train of thought Joe has. He accomplishes a realistic portrayal of the narrator's thoughts which are swift and choppy. This is the perfect style because it follows Joe's train of thought as it goes randomly through his head. "The style is most effetcive in absorbing and exciting the struggle to establish a measn of communication"(Creighton 444). "The nature of the style follows how Joe's mind degenerates into a suggestion of uncontrolled hysteria"(Creighton 444). This degeneration is Trumbo's attempt to illustrate the horrors of war. "The book was written as an antiwar novel to help prevent World War II and later on to help protest the Vietnam War"(Bruccoli 328). What is most effective about the staccato style is that it can change directions very quickly. This is evident in the half dream, half memory sequences(Creighton 444), where reality and dream shifts uncontrollably for Joe.
The task mof piecing together a story in a solitary person't mind, where reality and fiction have no borderline and time is of no matter, is not an easy one. Neither is demonstrating the emotional turmoil of war with as much realism as possible. Trumbo and Hemingway accomplish this by using a variety of film techniques, common literary devices, and custom writing styles. The use of film techniques make the books visual experiances. Trumbo's and Hemingway's shifts of focus allows the stories to elimanate time restrictions and let readers understand the different perspective of charecters. The decline of sanity is illustrated by the use of staccato writing style, and the use of Spanish slang draws readers into the story. Johnny Got His Gun and For Whom the Bell Toles are not only powerful anti war germaids but also text book examples of how authors do much more than simply tell stories, but make them come to life.
Cook, Bruce. "Dalton Trumbo." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444-445.
Creighton, Luella. "Strong Meat." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444-445.
Redman, Ben Ray. "In the Midst of Death." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444.
Reynolds, Micheal. "Ringing the Changes: Hemingway's "Bell" Tolls Fifty." In the Virginia Quarterly Review. Vol. 67. No. 1. Winter, 1991. 1-18.
Wilson, Edmund. "Return of Ernest Hemingway." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444.
Cook, Bruce. "Dalton Trumbo." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444-445.
Creighton, Luella. "Strong Meat." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444-445.
Redman, Ben Ray. "In the Midst of Death." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444.
Reynolds, Micheal. "Ringing the Changes: Hemingway's "Bell" Tolls Fifty." In the Virginia Quarterly Review. Vol. 67. No. 1. Winter, 1991. 1-18.
Struass, Harold. "The Body Maimed." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444.
Wilson, Edmund. "Return of Ernest Hemingway." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 19. Ed. Sharon R. Grunton. Gale Research Company. Detroit Michigan: Book Tower, 1981. 444.