Johnny Got His Gun
Vocabulary

3 uses

1 use

Written in 1938 when pacifism was anathema to the American left and most of the center,

anathema = something intensely disliked

1 use

2 uses

It was like the first time he went to school and was embarrassed and bewildered with so many people around.

bewildered = confused

1 use

With one quick rush of comprehension he understood what she was doing.

comprehension = understanding (especially complete understanding)

1 use

Things were always pretty scrambled up in the shipping room on Friday nights with boxes and dollies and racks scattered through the aisles and guys hollering and the conveyor belts rattling away and the rotary ovens upstairs screeching as they moved on hot greaseless plates.†

conveyor belts = a moving band or belt that transports objects — such as goods in a factory

1 use

1 use

At the insistence of friends...

insistence = to insist (demand)

1 use

It was so warm so secure so comforting to ... feel somehow that here was a place in the wilderness a place forever safe a place that could never be changed could never be harmed could never be intruded upon.

intruded = interrupted with an unwelcome entry

1 use

He got so frantic that he began to thrash from side to side like someone very sick with a high fever who can only monotonously repeat a motion or a word.

monotonously = without variety

3 uses

Let them form blocs and alliances and mutual assistance pacts and guarantees of neutrality.

pacts = agreements between parties

6 uses

Parley vous parley vous yes sir no sir lonesome honey where's that American voice? god I'd like to find her.†

parley = a negotiation or discussion — especially between enemies

1 use

They could recite the whole thing any time of the year because it was the poem of Christmas.

recite = say something previously memorized aloud

1 use

He remembered how Robinson Crusoe was very careful to keep track of time even though he never had any appointments.†

Robinson Crusoe = Daniel Defoe's famous novel and the name of its main character — a shipwrecked English sailor who survives on a small tropical island (1719)

2 uses

Each member of the family had a little cache of gifts hidden somewhere in the house away from the others. It was very dishonorable for anyone to snoop on the day before Christmas so no one ever did but there was no harm in speculating upon where the gifts might be hidden.

speculating = guessing

3 uses

He was twenty years old and he couldn't even summon enough strength to turn over in bed.

summon = call forth (from within)

1 use

Goodbye maw goodbye paw goodbye mule with your old hee-haw "As that great patriot Theodore Roosevelt has said " America I love you you're like a sweetheart to me "Don't go Joe run away they'll kill you I know it I'll never see you again."†

Theodore Roosevelt = 26th President of the United States; broke anti-competitive U.S. cartels, hero of the Spanish-American War; and champion of the building of the Panama Canal (1858-1919)

2 uses

The rest of the letters tumbled into his mind in a perfect torrent.†

torrent = an overwhelming amount — especially of quickly moving water

1 use

We will be alive and we will walk and talk and eat and sing and laugh and feel and love and bear our children in tranquillity in security in decency in peace.

tranquillity = undisturbed calmness

1 use