Johnny Got His Gun Chapter 3 Summary

  • Joe is… swimming? Is this another memory? No, he only feels like he's drowning. We're back in the present, and Joe feels the doctors working on him.
  • Joe feels something pinch on his left side. Remember what we said earlier about things getting worse? Well, folks, they've amputated his left arm.
  • Joe panics, and the drowning sensation comes back. He imagines how the doctors would have rationalized cutting off his arm, and he wonders what they actually do with the body parts that they amputate.
  • Things shift. Joe had a ring on his left hand that he wants back, and he's thinking about someone named Kareen.
  • Joe remembers Kareen giving him the ring. Somebody is kissing in the dark… it's Joe and Kareen. And then Kareen's tough father Mike catches them. Awkward.
  • But wait: Mike tells Kareen and Joe to go to the bedroom. Mike knows that Joe is going away to the war the next morning, and to him this justifies letting Kareen and Joe sleep together—presumably because Joe might be killed. So… yay?
  • Kareen begins to undress, shyly. Then she finishes undressing under the covers. She tells Joe to hand her her robe because she forgot something.
  • Kareen runs out of the room, and Joe notices how beautiful her feet are. She comes back with a bowl full of red geraniums and puts them in front of the window. Then she takes off her robe and lets Joe see her naked.
  • Yeah, it's going where you thought it was going.
  • Joe undresses, and he and Kareen get into bed. They hold each other and talk... and presumably do more than talk. Joe mentions putting his left arm under Kareen like a cushion.
  • The next morning, Mike brings Joe and Kareen breakfast in bed. Well, that's sweet. Not to mention awkward.
  • Joe thinks about how even though Mike is a tough man who has been in jail and worked in the coal mines, and even though he hates pretty much everyone, here he is bringing them breakfast in bed.
  • They all go to the train station with the rest of the enlisted soldiers. It's crowded, and there's a lot of noise, most of it patriotic in nature. A lot of pieces of different conversations and farewells and speeches and songs get thrown together: people are quoting famous patriots; they're quoting war ballads like "It's A Long Way to Tipperary" and, more importantly, "Over There," which has the line "Johnny get your gun."
  • One of the voices appears to belong to a mother whose sixteen-year-old son has illegally joined the army straight out of jail.
  • Joe thinks about how he does not want to go to war and leave Kareen; instead, he wants to live in a house with her and have children.
  • The voices pick up. Someone starts to pray.
  • Joe says goodbye to his mother and his sisters Catherine and Elizabeth. He says goodbye to Kareen and says that she'll be in his arms forever. The national anthem starts playing over his goodbyes.
  • Kareen tells Joe to put both his arms around her, and as Joe remembers this, he realizes that in the present, both of his arms are gone.