What We Take For Granted Essay, Research Paper
People always say it s the little things that we take for granted. Whether it be
being able to talk with someone, or hold someone, or even just being able to tell what
time of day it is. In Dalton Trumbos novel, Johnny Got His Gun , one really begins to
understands what it would be like to have very simple things taken away from them.
Joe Bonhame, finds himself tragically injured from the war. Over time he slowly
begins to realize all of the things that he has lost. The first thing that he loses is his
hearing. He was awake even though he couldn t hear a thing except a telephone that
wasn t ringing. He was mighty scared (p9). At first Joe doesn t realize that he has lost
his hearing and he is under the impression that there is actually a phone ringing
somewhere, but, it s really only in his mind. But once he realizes that he actually can t
hear anything at all, he goes into a state of shock almost. The shock caused his heart
to smash against his ribs. He grew prickly all over. His heart was pounding away in his
chest but he couldn t hear the pulsing in his ear (p10). He then begins to think about all
the things that he will never again get to experience. At first he thinks about all the bad
things that he wont have to ever have to deal with hearing again. He never wanted to
hear the biting little castanent sound of a machine gun or the high whistle of a .75
coming down fast or the slow thunder as it hit or the whine of an airplane
overhead… (p10-11). But as he stops and really starts to think about what this all
means, he then realizes all the little things that he has taken for granted; the things that
he wants to hear again. His mother was singing the kitchen. He could hear her singing
there and the sound of her voice was the sound of home (p15). Sadly though, Joe
could never go home now.
As Joe slowly begins to come to terms with losing his hearing he begins to
realize that it is not the only thing he has lost. He had no arms and no legs (p60). Joe
deals with not being able to hold those that he loves anymore, something that he hadn t
really valued when he could actually do it. He also has to deal with not being able to
walk either. But, if he only knew what he was to later discover. The hole began at the
base of his throat just below where his jaw should be and went upward in a widening
circle. He could feel his skin creeping around the rim of the circle. The hole was getting
bigger and bigger. It widened out almost to the base of his ears if he had any then
narrowed again. It ended somewhere above the top of what used to be his nose. The
whole went too high to have any eyes in it. He was blind (p62). At this point Joe had no
idea what to do. He was the nearest thing to a dead man on earth (p117). There was
nothing for Joe to do but lie there and think. Joe losing his entire face was also a lot like
him losing his fathers fishing rod. When he lost that rod it was like he had lost
everything for his father, but yet his father wasn t upset. But he just lay there in bed
beside his father with the two of them jack-knifed together in the way they always slept
best and his father s arm around him and he blinked back the tears. He and his father
had lost everything. Themselves and the rod (p108). He has lost his father s fishing rod,
which meant something to him, and now he had lost his face, which was his way of
communicating to the entire world; to everything he knew. He was lonely for one look
for one smell for one taste for one word that would bring Shale City and his father and
his mother and his sisters back to him (p108).
The most important thing that Joe had lost, was not a physical sense, but
something much more important. Without it, a person could go crazy, as Joe almost
does. The thing that Joe seems to lose in between his concieus and unconcieus states,
is time. All that he knew was that on a day in September in 1918 time stopped (p126).
At times he wasn t even able to tell if he was awake or sleep. There would be times
when he would think that he was fully awake and he would only come to realize that he
wasn t even awake at all. The whole idea had been taking form in his head for a long
while the idea of trapping time and himself back into the world but he hadn t been able
to concentrate on it (p127). If Joe could get back being able to have a sense of time,
then he could become part of the world around him. If you can keep track of time you
can get a hold o yourself and keep yourself in the world but if you lose it why then you
are lost too (p126). For Joe, there were no options. he had to regain a sense of time
and rejoin the living world around him.
Joe lost everything, but in a sense, he really lost it twice. The first time, when he
was initially injured, and the second time when he actually realized it. He had to deal
with finding out that he had no way to communicate with the world around him. He
would never hear, feel, speak, walk, ever again. He couldn t even breath on his own.
But yet, he doesn t give up. He finds something that he can get back, his sense of time,
and he goes after it and doesn t let his physical disabilities hold him back. All the reader
can do is cheer him on and stop and think about all the little things that they take for
granted, every day.