Joe Bonham is the protagonist of Johnny Got His Gun, with the novel’s perspective centered on his point of view. Joe is a young man from humble origins. He recalls his father working hard to grow food and feed the family, and also describes his own experiences “walking all night long and working hard and getting eighteen dollars at the end of the week for [his] trouble” (67). Before the war, Joe performed a series of manual “blue-collar” jobs, such as working in an industrial bakery and doing maintenance work on a desert railway in the heat. Joe’s modest socio-economic background designates him as one of the “little guys,” who he sees as being at the bottom of social and political hierarchies—the “little guys” are ordinary, everyday people who are often exploited in times of war.

Joe’s experience in the First World War has led to catastrophic physical injuries. All of the novel’s present-day action takes place in Joe’s hospital bed, where he is now deaf, blind, and mute. His body has undergone multiple amputations, depriving him of his limbs. At first, Joe’s discovery of the extent of his injuries is so horrifying for him that he attempts suicide.