Johnny Got His Gun And Born On The Fourth Of July
Johnny Got His Gun and Born on the Fourth of July
Fictional Novel compared to a Non-fictional Biography
War has long since been a fixture in the history of man - timeless as history itself. War is fraught with controversy, drama, and deception to some, yet filled with hope and optimism to others. Books, poems, and music have been a few ways some have expressed their feelings on war as well as to recount their own experiences. This allows the expression of both fiction and non-fiction. Two works of interest are the novel Johnny Got His Gone, written by Dalton Trumbo in 1939 and movie, Born on the Fourth of July directed by Oliver Stone in 1989. While the book is fiction, the movie is a non-fictional biography. Each work introduces two young men, Joe Bonham (Johnny Got His Gun) and real-life war hero Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July) who were both led to the battlefields of democracy of World War I and Vietnam, respectively. Each man leaves behind an All-American life and family only to return to the horrific realities of the life the war destroyed. Both men were left permanently disabled questioning their even existence at the hands of a country they once so proudly served and loved. While both are anti-war representations, compared to true life story portrayed in Born on the Fourth of July, Johnny Got His Gun, although fictional, receives more sympathy from the audience due to many aspects such as technique and theme
First and foremost, the most striking differences between the two is language, which is more moving and convincing in Johnny Got His Gun. Although Johnny Got His Gun is a novel, it leaves more to the readers' imagination. The dialogue and action in Born on the Fourth of July might leave you stunned and affected, only does so for a few seconds until the scene is over. In the novel, Trumbo omitted the use of direct speech and exclamation points making it at times difficult to understand the feeling...
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