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Symbols
While arguably Joe’s whole body is an important symbol in the novel, his arms are particularly significant because they symbolize the connection and comfort that the war took away from Joe when it took away his arms. After being caught in an artillery shell explosion, Joe doesn’t initially know what happens to him, and his slow realization that both his arms have been amputated is his first hint that, while he survived the blast, he might have met a fate worse than death. Arms show up again and again in Joe’s memories of his past, as he recalls holding his girlfriend Kareen close to him one night or comforting his mother after the death of his father. In all these cases, Joe’s arms bring him closer to other people, and they also give him agency—Joe fears that without arms, he might never work again (before he realizes that he’s missing a lot more than just his arms).
When the war takes Joe’s arms, it symbolically takes away both Joe’s relationships with his loved ones and his free will. At the end of the novel, Joe muses that if people could see him out in public, it would force them to confront the horrors of war. However, “regulations” prevent him from leaving the hospital. And, unable to fend for himself due to his injuries, Joe realizes that the public will never see his injuries or the horrors of war they represent. Thus, Joe’s arms also become a symbol of the public’s ignorance of the horrors of war and what war takes from people.
Arms Quotes in Johnny Got His Gun
The Johnny Got His Gun quotes below all refer to the symbol of Arms. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
“That’s not Bill. It may seem like it but it’s not.”
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Chapter 3
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They didn’t sleep very much. Sometimes they dozed off and awakened and found that they were apart and came back to each other and held one another tight very tight as if they had been lost forever and had just found each other all over again.
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Chapter 13
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American generals and English generals shook your hand but since he had no hand to shake maybe this was an Englishman or an American who had decided to follow the French custom because there was no other way to do it.
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Chapter 14
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He felt change through the tips of her fingers and a sharp little twinge of disgust went through him but in spite of the disgust he was responding to the touch responding to the mercy in her heart that caused her to touch him so. Her hands sought out the far parts of his body. They inflamed his nerves with a kind of false passion that fled in little tremors along the surface of his skin.
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Get the entire Johnny Got His Gun LitChart as a printable PDF.
Arms Symbol Timeline in Johnny Got His Gun
The timeline below shows where the symbol Arms appears in Johnny Got His Gun. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...father anymore, even if it looks like him. Joe pats her shoulder and puts his arm around her to comfort her.
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Chapter 3
...and realizes with horror that they’re touching a stump on his shoulder because his left arm has been amputated. Joe is angry, feeling that his doctors should have had to sign...
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Joe wonders what they did to his amputated left arm. Do they bury it respectfully or throw it out like trash? He wonders what happened...
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...joins her. They embrace, and Kareen begs him not to leave. He puts his left arm under her to cushion her as they kiss. The whole night, they hold each other...
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...and how he’s lost her. Then he realizes that has not only lost his left arm, but his right arm as well.
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Chapter 5
Joe wants to yell with fear after realizing he has no arms or legs, but he can’t—he doesn’t even have a mouth with jaws or a tongue....
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Chapter 9
...to the tent and tells his father he lost the rod. His father puts an arm over Joe’s chest to comfort him and tells him not to worry and not to...
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Chapter 13
...almost feels like he can hold it for a second before he remembers both his arms are gone. He feels a man with a moustache kiss him, and this tells him...
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Chapter 16
...he explains that, while he isn’t about to die, he is about to lose his arms, legs, hearing, and sight. Eventually, all of the card players, including Joe, board a train....
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Chapter 19
...Joe wants is too big to put into words. Most of all he wants his arms and legs back, as well as his senses, but he knows there’s no way to...
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Chapter 20
...a vision of himself as a new Christ surveying an apocalyptic world where mothers without arms hold babies without heads. He feels that after he told the strangers his secret, they...
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