6

The nurse writes on Joe's chest, Merry Christmas. He starts to try and tap out some more Morse Code, and she finally realizes that he is trying to communicate. She can't understand what he is doing, but she assumes that he is doing Morse Code, something she does not understand. So she goes out and finds someone who knows Morse Code. It's a man, and the first thing that he taps out to Joe is, "What do you want?" To Joe, this is a stupid question. What Joe wants is to become an exhibit. He wants to be apart of a sort of freak show, where he could make a profit. He wants to do this because he wants to show people the horrors of war. He wants to be able to interact with people, and he wants to be out of the hospital. He suggests this to the man, but the man replies back by saying that that is against regulations. The army does not want to show him to the world because it would be bad publicity for the U.S. government and the idea of war. They like the idea of saving Joe's "body" but they do not want him to be able to think, they just want him to lay there, and stay alive. They don't care about the inside, just Joe's physical stability.

5 Sedation

Since Joe's typing becomes so irate and so annoying to the medical staff, they sedate him with drugs. These drugs make him feel very weird and he starts to see and hallucinate very interesting and colorful pictures in his dreams and thoughts. Joe has a dream about a woman who is looking for her son in Tucson, Arizona at a train station. It turns out that this young boy is actually Jesus Christ. This Christ could preform many miracles like the real Jesus. This boy claimed that he could "do anything." He made drinks for the soldiers in Joe's dream. Joe, in his dream, is also playing cards with the other soldiers. They are sitting and talking about their deaths, but then they realize that Joe did not die, but he was neither living. He was stuck in the middle. They all agree that Joe's fate is much worse than their fate's. 

TAPPING

Joe has been laying in his bed, counting the days in his head, just thinking. He's extremely bored and wants to try and find something else to do. After realizing that he knows Morse Code, Joe forgets all about his time keeping and starts to tap out SOS in Morse Code. He thinks that maybe he will be able to communicate with the outside world. He thinks that this is going to work, and he gets his hopes up, but in the end the nurse he is tapping too does not know Morse Code. Instead she thinks that Joe is frustrated and is in pain. She tries everything to make him feel better, but Joe still continues to punch out SOS.  This shows that Joe is making progress. It's interesting that he completely lost track of time, and forgot about it, to pay attention to something else. He's entirely focused on being able to communicate with the outside world.

3

On Joe's face, there is a huge open wound that is extremely appalling and has engulfed his entire face. It's pussing and bleeding, and it's just honestly really gross. While laying down at night, a rat comes in his room and starts to crawl onto his face. He cannot do anything about it because he has no arms or legs, and he can't really talk. The rat crawls onto his face and starts to gnaw and chew on his scabs and wounds. This rat acts as a reminder to Joe that he is extremely vulnerable. He's helpless and can't do anything to protect himself. This small little rat was able to torture him, and there was nothing that he could do about. 

The rat also symbolizes how wars, especially the one Joe was in, have accomplished nothing. Soldiers on the other side have also had similar fates. They have lost limbs and blood. The only things that will gain anything are the rats, because they will be able to live off of the humans skin. He thinks that the only people who gain things are the ones who aren't fighting (the politicians).  It's not fair that everyone else has to fight and sacrifice so the rich could keep getting more and more.   

JGHG 2

Joe had just gotten his legs taken off. He no longer had any, and so Joe started to dream about all of the times that he had used his legs. He realized that he had taken his legs for granted and never really thought about how great it is that he was ever able to walk. Joe would walk eleven miles to the bakery that he worked at every day. He would work a lot and late at night. He spent a lot of time there. This bakery was in L.A. Joe actually kind of liked working there. At this bakery, Joe had a coworker by the name of Jose. Jose, once a driver for a family, came to L.A. to work in the movie business. He greatly wanted to do so. Joe liked that Jose had a dream that he was sticking too and was working hard to achieve. He admired that. Jose also is a very considerate person and works very hard at his job. Joe wishes that he could be more like that and he likes Jose's personality very much. Joe also liked Jose because Jose had quit his driving job because the daughter in the family had fallen in love with him, and he didn't love her back. Joe thought that this was a very nice and compassionate thing of Jose to do because Jose easily could have taken advantage of her, but instead, he left because he did not want to cause many problems in his work, and he did not want t cause the young girl pain. 

j

Joe has just gotten back from war and is kind of screwed up mentally and physically. He has wounds and bandages all over his body. He thinks that he is deaf because he can't hear his own heart beat. Joe had been unconscience and had just woken up from it. The ringing in his hear reminds him of when his mother called him on the phone to tell him that his father had died. Although he can't hear, and his eyesight is impaired, he is able to feel of the people working on him. Doctors are working on a procedure and are trying to heal him. While they are doing so, both of his arms are amputated. He is very frightened and feels very helpless. It's a very hectic situation and Joe feels very trapped. He compares it to drowning because he keeps on getting dunked into helplessness. He can't communicate due to his deafness and he can't make hand motions because he has no hands. He can't do anything in the situation and it's bothering him greatly.

Irwin takes the V CARD!!!!!!!!

When Esther first meets Irwin, she immediately sees the chance to have "sexual relations" with him. throughout the entire novel, Esther had always talked about how she had divided the people into two groups; virgins and. non-virgins. Sex had been something that Esther had always wanted to experience and she thought that by being a virgin, she was being held back. Esther was also ready for sex because she had had a contraceptive (diaphragm) put in recently. She did not want to have a baby because it was something that society had told the common women to do. She thought that babies would tie her down. She did not want to be like the mother who had been in the bed next to her at the hospital. 

Irwin was experienced, which was odd because Esther did not like that in a man, but she was desperate at this point for any action.  She also took comfort in knowing that she never really had to talk again, and would not feel badly about it. In all honestly she wanted to use him for sex once, and get along with her life. She didn't want any strings attached. 

Despite Esther's physical wound from sleeping with Irwin, she was morally and mentally victorious. It's a great boost to her self-esteem. Her scars and pains were proof that she had lost her innocence and she felt great.