Joe Bonham's horrible reality, following thewar-provoked? incident that left him little but his mind. This is limited to unimaginable mental and physical anguish, thus making his life worthless. No man could want to continue the suffering and hardship that is obviously in store for this lost cause (Joe). The immense pain that Joe endures while lying helpless in his hospital bed will not one day subside, as long and his heart and brain continue racing. He is forever debilitated, leaving him a dismembered carcass with the frightening ability to think. This capability is a curse rather than a blessing; no arms, no legs, and no face only the pieces of a man who is forever lost in thoughts and memories. These memories end up adding to the agony of his wounds. Joe's current state, keeping in mind no recovery is possible, not only leaves aman? who is worthless in life due to his terrible physical injuries but leaves him so ridden with pain, both on the surface and with his racing mind, that his life is not worth living; there is only a certain amount of torture and suffering that a person can endure before death is a better option than life. As long as Joe lives his pain will last forever.
?But why hadn't he bled to death? You?d think that with the stumps of two arms and two legs spouting blood a man could at least die,? Joe wonders (page 83). One of the many horrible aspects of Joe's actuality is that he is fully able to comprehend what has happened to him and is forced to live with that knowledge. The mental torments that are his thoughts cross the human threshold of pain by a mile, leaving Joe to wish he had been killed rather than saved. With such pain everlasting, no human could totally resist mental trauma and while Joe seems to be fairly sane at this point, his mind begins manifesting some truly sick ideas.The rat was eating on him now. He could feel its little sharp teeth as they bit into the edge of the wound and then he could feel the quick little movements through the rats body as it chewed?I would return from day to day and from night to night to feed on his carcass until he went crazy.
