AP Free Response Question

The father and young man in this passage from Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun are very close, which can be seen from the details and syntax.

Trumbo uses details to show the significance of the things that bring the father and son together. He starts the passage with a detailed description of the campsite where the father and son go to every year: “Each summer they came to this place which was nine thousand feet high and covered with pine trees and dotted with lakes. They fished in the lakes and when they slept at night the roar of water from the streams which connected the lakes sounded in their ears all night long.” The attention to detail shows that the characters know this campsite very well, meaning that they have indeed come here often. If the father and son were not close, they would not come here so often that they can remember minor details about this location. However, they clearly do remember these details, showing that they are close enough to want to come back to this specific place every year. Trumbo then describes the father’s fishing rod in detail: “It had amber leaders and beautiful silk windings. Each spring his father sent the rod away to a man in Colorado Springs who was an expert on rods.” Trumbo takes the time to describe this rod because it is special to the father, and the details emphasize how much he values it. Since the rod gets almost an entire paragraph dedicated to it, the son realizes that receiving the rod is a special gift from the father and should not been taken lightly due to its importance to the father. Giving the rod to the son after using many details to stress its importance and value is an example of the father caring deeply for the young man because he feels so close to his son that he is willing to part with the “only extravagance” he has known. Trumbo’s use of details highlights the bonds that connect the two men.

Trumbo uses the syntax to demonstrate the closeness between the father and the son. During the third and fourth paragraphs, Trumbo describes a conversation between the two. However, the dialogue is completely missing quotation marks: “And then a little later his father said has Bill Harper got a rod? He told his father no Bill hasn't got a rod. Well said his father why don’t you take my rod and let Bill use yours?” The lack of quotation marks is significant because it demonstrates an easiness in speaking between the two. The conversation flows and is uninterrupted or stalled by punctuation, indicating that they can speak very casually with each other, even though it is a conversation that the son was initially unwilling to start. An easiness like this one is difficult to have unless the two conversing are very close to each other. In addition, the lack of quotation marks creates a sense of unity because the father and son are not separated by as much punctuation as they grammatically should be. Their conversation just goes back and fourth naturally without interruptions and shows that they get along well because their conversation almost replicates the internal thoughts of a single person. Trumbo’s omission helps to demonstrate a  closeness and easiness between the father and son.

In this passage from Dalton Trumbo’s novel Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo relies on his use of details and syntax to demonstrate a close relationship between a father and son because the details emphasize the bonds the two have created over things such as camping and fishing and the lack of quotation marks show an easiness and unity in their conversations.