Johnny Got His Gun is written as a literal stream of consciousness, without pause or punctuation, almost as your very own thoughts and feelings. It lacks the confinement of grammar and even chronological order. In Joe's prison he can't see, hear, speak, smell or move much, but he still has the ability to think and feel. Ironically in a world where all physical feelings are lost, emotional feeling is the strongest element of the novel. We are thrust into Joe's mind and with him we slowly relive memories of a life long ago.
What is interesting of Trumbo`s style is that every memory Joe has of the past is brought on by something going on in the present, at that very moment. When Joe had a fever and felt extremely hot, he recalled working in the Uintah desert one summer. When Joe felt very light and that he was drowning, he realized he had no legs. When Joe is plagued by constant ringing in his ears from being deaf, he remembered how the phone rang the day his father died. In a way Trumbo is tying the past and the present together. It not just one story of a time long ago, it a story of the moment that is still happening as the reader reads. The feelings and thoughts of Joe are so close to you, and yet they are distant. .
The chapters where Joe leaves to go to the war and where he speaks of his fate to meet the bomb are nothing short of works of art. The chapter where Joe leaves to the war has immense significance. It is the beginning of the end. This is the moment Joe's leaves his life, his love and his family behind. Trumbo `s stream of consciousness writing does more then just describe this scene as it happened , instead it thrusts you in the midst of all the excitement and confusion as it is happening . You begin to actually hear the politicians speak their speeches and listen to the musicians play their music, and feel the mother's worry as she looks for her son.