At the end of the novel, Joe realizes he is the future. He represents what will happen to people if they go to war and fight. They will get hurt, cripple, be like him, or even die. Even though he is the future, he has no future and has no hope left because he cannot be free from the hospital since it is “against regulations”. He is not going to be able to enlighten people about what his views are and what he thinks the world should be like. The government and military just want to suppress him so people will still want to fight for their country in wars and be supportive.
He is pointing the gun at the “masters of men” or the authority that sends people to war like the government. They are the ones who organize it and plan it, but yet they do not fight in it. They are spectators while the soldiers they sent are getting killed. He realizes that people are being told that they are fighting for democracy, but in reality they aren’t. How can they be fighting for democracy when everyone is being shot and killed? The ones who fight are not given democracy since they are dead.
At the end of this book, it seems that the writer switched his point of view on wars. Throughout the book, Trumbo seemed very anti-war and that all wars are pointless. In the end, it seemed he was saying if a war has a good cause then people should stand up and fight.
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3 comments:
Katie-
Congratulations on finally completing the AP English Exam! I must say that it feels quite nice to finally be with that. All the practice actually paid off and wasn’t pointless (just kidding, I knew that it actually would). I agree with what you said in the beginning of your post about what Joe realizes and how he feels as though his life is pointless now because the generals will never let him out of the hospital. However, I disagree with what you said at the end of your post about the author switching his positions. He was anti-war throughout the entire novel and made his opinions the strongest at the end of the book. He is mocking the generals and the “masters of war” for starting the wars, but never actually fighting in them. He is pointing out the irony in that fact and is trying to get the peasants to not fight in the wars. Oh, and also congratulations on finishing all of your blog posts for the year.
I think you made some really good points. Joe realizes he is the future, but that the people in charge of the war don't want people to see the future because it will discourage the from fighting. Because of this he has no hope because he will never be let out of the hospital and his loneliness will never stop. I also agree with you who he is pointing the gun at and why.
However, like Alex, I don't think that Trumbo is switching views on the war. He was anti-war throughout the whole book, but his opinion seemed to get stronger at the end.
I think that Joe's realization of him being the future is a little bit drastic and pessmistic. Although, I will say that I do agree with him on how people with the authority don't do much. And I think you make a good point how towards the end Trumbo is no longer anti-war. I never really thought about it that way, but I see it now... But really, is war really justified with "good cause/reason"?
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