The End of The Novel

At the end of the novel Joe realizes that he is the future. He is the future because the war is going to continue to produce people like him. People who are so close to death, and are severely injured. The gun is being pointed at the masters of the war. The gun is being pointed at them because they are the ones that are causing the deaths in the war. They are the ones that should be held reponsibile. They are telling the soldiers who to kill and what to do and yet they are not killing anyone themselves. I thought it was a good ending, but slightly depressing. I was definitely expecting him to die by the end of the novel, I'm surprised that he lived for years with a hole in his side, and barely a body. I thought the book was pretty good, Trumbo does an amazing job of writing something that seems so realistic and is so detailed. This is not the kind of book that I ever would have read on my own, so I'm glad that we read this book for class and the discussions that we had really helped explain the book to me, and made me understand and realize things that I never would have on my own.