Johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 18-20

In the last couple chapters of the book Joe gets a response to his morse code messages from before. The people at the hospital ask him, "What do you want?" This question kind of pissed off Joe because he didn't know how they were asking him. For all he knew they were saying, "Jeeze...what do you want?" like he was a nuisance. Despite his thought of the question Joe comes to a decision of what he wants to say. He wants to be on display for all the world to see. So they can see what war has done to him. He wants everyone to learn how brutal the outcome of the fighting can truly be. He is this product of a war. This abomination created by the people who sent him to war.

Johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 16-17

In chapter 16 Joe is given an intense amount of pain killers. Afterwards he goes into a state of confusion. During the confusion he has a dream about Christ. Joe is sent plummeting through nothing until he hears a woman crying. He then sees Jesus and walks with him. They go to a train station of sorts and sit in an area waiting for the train. While they're there, they see a group of men playing cards. Joe realizes kind of quickly that all these people in this area are waiting to die. He then gets called out in a way by one of the men because, 'He doesn't belong there.' The man says that Joe is not dead so why is he here. Then Joe explains his situation and the men think they're fortunate for being dead. It's astounding to think of someone being in such a horrible place that dead people think they have it better. Joe might as well be dead anyway. I think that's what this dream is saying...Joe was amongst all these dead people. He is on that line of life & death, and he can't do anything about it. If it were me I'd honestly want to be pushed over that edge into death.

Johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 13-15

After Joe tried to communicate through time, he realizes it's not working as well as he wanted. Then he remembers about morse code. You can speak to people through a series of clicks and holds. During this chapter a bunch of army generals go to visit him and deliver medals to him. While they're there, Joe tries to get their attention by morse code. Since he can only use his head, the nurses think something's wrong. They check all his monitors and try different things to get him to stop but nothing seems to work. No one realizes that he's trying to talk to them and eventually the nurse decides that he is 'sexually frustrated.' She makes the decision to help him release the frustration and hopefully make him feel better. Although Joe appreciates what she was trying to do, he gets really upset that he is seen as an animal to the people around him. Joe's tapping is eventually recognized, which helps out his situation greatly.

Johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 11-12

Throughout the book Joe has been completely cut off by society. He has lost all sense of communication with the outside world. Then he starts to think about the fact that he can still feel. He doesn't have to be completely cut off. Joe decides that he will keep time so that he will at least know something about his surroundings. He starts his own timing, counting the seconds by tapping his head. Then he realizes there's no way he can keep all that time in his head so he decides to go off of the sunlight that comes into the room and the rotation of nurses that come in to see him. After Johnny starts counting time, he really does feel more connected. It made me happy for him in this part of the book.

Johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 8-10

In these chapters Joe starts to face his demons. He thinks a lot about the war that he was in. He starts thinking about war in general. He poses the question, "Is it worth it?" His father talked to Joe about war and about how the kids who go there don't know what they're fighting for. Democracy is simply a word to people...they don't know what it means and they don't know why they're fighting for it. He then goes on to think about what makes fighting worth it. If someone has a personal reason for going and fighting then it's probably worth it. If someone truly knows why they are fighting and are actually passionate about the cause then I'd say it's worth it. But Joe mentions the kids who go into these wars. He talks about the death of these innocent kids...when someone is shot down in a battle, they aren't thinking about democracy and their country, they're simply thinking, "I don't want to die!" Pleading that they will live. Joe definitely doesn't think war is worth his situation. He isn't alive or dead...he has been completely mutilated by this war and he didn't even truly understand what he was fighting for. For Joe and for me...war is not worth it.

johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 6-7

In these chapters Joe is sitting in his bed and he feels a sharp pain in his side. He realizes it is a rat chewing at his flesh. Joe doesn't know what to make of the rat at first. Then he starts to think that it could not be real. At this point Joe honestly doesn't know if he is awake or asleep...if he is dreaming or if the rat is real. The rat is representative of Joe's helplessness. A rat, an animal the size of your fist is sitting there eating at his side and he can't do anything about it. He can't move away from it, he can't push it away, he can't even cry from the pain. He has to just sit there and take it. This is where the book got kind of real for me. I didn't really think about it as being that big of a deal. After-all he's still alive. But after this scene I realized how messed up it is to keep Joe alive in his horrible position.

Johnny Got His Gun: Chapter 1-5

During WW1 Joe gets hit with an artillery shell. The shell completely destroyed him. He has no arms, no legs, and for a matter of speaking no face. All Joe really has is his vital organs, a brain, and his sense of touch. Like I said before he has no face. This means he can't hear, he can't see, he can't taste, he can't smell. Joe is being kept alive by machines and nurses tending to him multiple times a day. He has a machine breathing for him and a machine feeding him. Joe can hardly even move. He talks about drowning in the chapter too. He says that when you're drowning, you're helpless. You freak out before you die because you know that there's no way for you to get out. His situation is just like that, he can't help himself. Joe can't even kill himself if he wanted to. He can't do anything. Everything for Joe is controlled by other people and he has no control over anything but his mind.

The Bell Jar: Chapter 19-20

One thing Esther does during the book is she tries to find a man to sleep with. The whole book she finds her virginity as more of a burden. As it turned out, when she actually lost her virginity it wasn't what she thought it would be. She decided it would be with Irwin just because he was willing. She didn't have any real special feelings towards him. After they had sex, Esther thought it was really anticlimactic. She didn't feel any different and it turned out to just be kind of a nuisance for her. This is a perfect example of the bell jar simply hanging above her and not going away.

The Bell Jar: Chapter 17-18

Throughout the book Esther has had problems with herself and with other people. She's battled depression & suicide, and the people & society don't help with those issues. It appears as if the bell jar is representative of Esther's depression. The bell jar keeps her trapped and makes it impossible for her to escape her depression. The bell jar kept her down and it even drove her to attempt suicide multiple times. I think it's possible for Esther to get out from the bell jar but I doubt she'll ever be able to escape it. The bell jar is kind of like the blues...it's always going to be with her.

The Bell Jar: Chapter 15-16

Due to her depression, Esther is sent to a new asylum. The woman who paid for her schooling through the scholarship paid for her mental, medical bills. This new asylum seemed much better. She has a new psychiatrist who Esther really likes. The doctor is a woman, which kind of shocked Esther. At this new asylum there are two levels. If you're showing improvement then you get moved to one area...but if your mental status depletes during your stay you are moved to another episode. Overall, this new asylum is good for Esther and the people there treat her much better.

The Bell Jar: Chapter 13-14

Esther never really knows where she fits in. Even in the first couple of chapters Esther couldn't find who she wanted to be. This, along with her experiences factor in and make her sadder and sadder as time goes on. Esther starts to become suicidal. She tries many times to kill herself. She thinks about shooting herself but then thinks about it and decides that that is a 'Man's death.' Then she tries to hang herself and fails. After this she decides to go into a crawl space under her house and takes fifty pills. Later she wakes up in a hospital with a blindfold on. Esther really doesn't know what to do with herself and thinks death is the only relief she can find.

The Bell Jar: Chapter 11-12

During this part of the book Esther goes to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon. Esther hated Gordon for many reasons. The main reason is because she felt he really didn't care about her problems...he just saw her as money. Major evidence for this was when she first walked into his office she saw a picture of him and his family smiling. She saw that and thought, how ridiculous is it to tell this happy functional person my problems. One thing Dr. Gordon did for Esther was the shock treatments. It seemed like he simply wanted to do these "treatments" in order to make Esther feel better. Once she thinks she's better, he can take her money and send her on her way. This made Esther absolutely hate him. Dr. Gordon definitely wasn't helping Esther.

The Bell Jar: Chapter 9-10

In this chapter Esther heads back to Boston. You can truly see her depression now. As she's walking around she really doesn't care if stuff is in her way. She's extremely sad and traumatized from her experience with Marco. Esther still had the same clothes on. These clothes had the blood from Marco on them. Her depression is also visible through her behavior of every day activities. There was a period of time after her night with Marco where she didn't bathe...she couldn't sleep...and when she tried to read or write anything she wasn't able to do it. It's obvious her night with Marco messed her up pretty bad and I'm sure as we read more it will play a bigger role in her life.