Analysis of Johnny Got His Gun Essay

AP Essay "Johnny Got His Gun"

This passage from Johnny Got His Gun describes the close relatioship between a father and his son. The passage shows the desire and importance of a son's right of passage in growing up. The author shows the dedication between a father and son and the struggle that the son feels in breaking away. The son is beginning to feel the need to branch out as most do during adolescence. The passage shows the difficulty in achieving this goal and in finding the right time to do it.

The story is written in third person but has a closer look into the mind of the son. The passage looks at his feelings towards his father. It follows his emotions and the effect that the situations have on him. There is an obvious dedication between the two. The author uses careful selection of details to illustrate the apparent relationship between them. The details make it seem as if the father and son always got along and were always most important to each other, above all else. The father and son both preferred the company of each other over the company of outsiders. Despite this the son desires to break away and start a life as a normal, social teenager. The point of the passage is to show the difficulty that he experiences because of that.

The author uses a unique syntax. There are little to no sentences containing commas. The sentances are not always short, but are generally to the point. The author also used a description of the pair's tradition to foreshadow the upcoming events. In the passage, he immediately describes the area in the woods where they're staying together. The line "Sitting across from him and staring into the fire was his father." shows a sense of distance between the two. It's as if the father feels what's coming and is contemplating it. The tension between the two was growing. "He sat in front of the fire and looked across at his father and wondered just how he was going to tell him. It was a very serious thing." This shows the internal struggle that the son is going through. He knows that he should tell his father that he wants to spend time with someone else but he doesn't want to change their relationship.

The writing shows that the father and son are so close that any change would be considered disrespectful. Eventually the son eases into telling him in a very matter of fact manner. "He said Bill Harper's coming up tomorrow so I thought maybe I'd go out with him." He explains that they're going to go fishing. After hesitation the father goes so far as to suggest that he borrow his prized fishing rod. This shows that despite a possible feeling of betrayal, the father still loves his son unconditionally. In all the stress over the situation was overkill. Though some bitterness may remain, the father and son will always have a connection that is important above all else. "He felt a little lump in his throat as he thought that even as he was deserting his father for Bill Harper his father had volunteered the rod." This action showed the son his fathers love.

In closing, the author used many techniques to show the unconditional love and closeness involved in this relationship. The story is somewhat short and to the point. The point of view allowed the reader to look into the mind of the son and to understand his experiences, although it was not from a first person point of view.