Topic > Johnny Got the Gun: Analysis of the Novel's Structure and Symbolism

Dalton Trumbo is perhaps best known for his communist views and his involvement in Hollywood's HUAC committee and his work in the industry cinematic. However, Trumbo's novels are widely regarded as some of his best work. In one of the esteemed and arguably best-known novels, Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo uses a third-person point of view and stream-of-consciousness-like syntax to characterize the exceptionally complex and changing relationship between the young man and his father. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Trumbo's book is structured in an exceptionally unique way. The most striking aspect of its structure is Trumbo's extensive use of flashback. The passage about the main character's fishing trip with his father is an example of Trumbo's use of flashback, as it is written from the reflective point of view of the young man on a camping trip with his father and his friend. “They had been coming to this place since he was seven,” says Trumbo, “Now he was fifteen and Bill Harper was coming tomorrow…Tomorrow for the first time in all our trips together he wanted to go fishing with someone other than his father (Trumbo).Although the third person point of view isolates the reader from the situation somewhat, it also makes it more interesting as it highlights how innovative the situation is in their relationship other words, the third person point of view amplifies the fact that the boy is growing up and breaking away from the once-close relationship he and his father once shared. Likewise, the use of third-person point of view highlights a striking generation gap between father and son On the one hand, the son wants to wake up “early in the morning” to go “fishing” with his friend Bill Harper. On the other hand, his father, who is supposedly old, tired and a little boring, “Doesn't want to go fishing” because he is tired and “[He will rest] all day” (Trumbo). The point of view not only highlights a generational difference, but also characterizes the changing nature of their relationship. That is, they were once best friends who did everything together, but now they are drifting apart as the boy grows up and becomes himself, without needing the once priceless support and attention of his loving father. Additionally, Trumbo uses stream-of-consciousness syntax to characterize the evolving relationship between father and son. This is especially evident when Trumbo says, “For a while his father said nothing. Then he said why sure get along with Joe... Shortly after [he asked if] Bill Harper [has] a joint? to which the son replied that Bill doesn't have the cane (Trumbo). The boy's father in turn tells his son to "take my rod and let Bill use yours" since he would not go fishing with them and therefore would not need it (Trumbo). The fact that the boy's father gives his son his precious pole, "the only extravagance his father had in his entire life", is a sort of symbolic passing of the baton between father and son (Trumbo). In other words, the pole is a symbol of both the son's newfound independence and freedom, and the changing nature of the relationship between father and son (from loving and almost mutualistic to loving but independent). Likewise, Trumbo's use of fast-paced, stream-of-consciousness syntax, during which the boy's fishing trip is described at the end of the passage, emphasizes the boy's happiness with his new freedom and the changing nature of his relationship with his father when Trumbo says, “Yes.