What does Joe realize at the end of the book? Who is he pointing the gun at?

joe realizes that he is the future. what has happened to his body, to his soul, is the future. it is what the masters of war want - the authority in society. the authority that is leading our country to more and more fighting. the authoritative people who keep these wars going on, one after the other. because joe knows that WWI, this war is not the end. it is only an example. and he knows that the hospital will not go with what he desires - to show people the threats of war, the devastation and the terror- they wont do it because of the very reason that joe wants to show people. the hospital wont show people Joe, they wont show them his warning of the future. because they need people in those wars. the masters of wars need people to fight. and joe knows the future - he has seen the airplanes, he has seen the wars, hes seen romance and dreams turn to horror and darkness, to screaming boys and crippled fathers, hes seen starving mothers, headless babies, dead mass silence from the amount of innocent deaths. and the masters of war, the people that enforce those regulations, keep joe a secret because they need these realities to be secret. because if they werent, people wouldnt fight. they need people to fight. and he realizes that it really is the little people vs the big people. the soldiers, the civilians, the people of the world against those who enforce evil, who promote it. who continue these awful devastations for their own gain. but joe goes into taking the voice of the people as one - for he goes against these masters of war - he declares their injustice, their root of the problem - how they are the ones who force those who wants only to live to kill others who only want to live. and how they use the people, use the men of peace, throw their slogans at them, their lies. and joe says yes, do that all you want. and we will follow you and do waht you say - but the guns will be pointed at you. the guns will be pointed at the masters of war. the people against the authority. authority/war vs. peace, people. that is the future. that mess is the future.

i hope i understood this right. lol

Do you agree with Joe's desires? Would that be what you wanted in a similar situation?

Joe desires to die. to end this close to death life that he "lives" anyways. i dont blame him for wanting to die. i cant even imagine what kind of life that is anyhow, how bored, how drained, how lonely, confusing, and lost i may feel. how distant, how crazy. like joe says, his knowledge isnt enough. having me just in my own body is not enough. at all. if joe continues to live secluded from the world, in his own mind, his own dreams/reality, i honestly can understand joe and his desires to die. but there is another option, because when joe finally comes into contact with the outside world, and works with himself to be in communication - to have some purpose in his life beyond all of his calculations and thoughts - when he feels the sunrise, he feels vibrations, he taps, he feels, he begins to be somewhat connected to people - i dont agree with him desiring to die. because when he is in connection with people - not only wiht people, but with simply the world and the reality around him - that is a life worth living. that is life. life is not just a secluded world inside your head like the one he lives in during the first half of the book. there is life when there are connections. 

What does Joe want? Why does he want it? Why is it against regulations?

Joe wants out. he wants out of the hospital and out of this isolation. he wants connection with people - he wants to affect people with what happened to him and his state. he is tired of living this life, more so living a life that is more compatible to death, where he is complete alone. he wants to travel, to influence and show people the effects of war. he wants to be taken in a glass box to show people. he uses morse code to tell the nurses this. he wants to be an exibit to show how cruel war is, the horrors of war. but the regulations of the hospital are that they dont want people to see the horrors of war - if they did, people wont fight and support their country - they wont join the army. people will see the future - what will happen to them, to people all over the world. and they will be scared of their government, of their country, of fighting for their country. the hospital wants to keep joe a secret because of the tragicness of his life. it is awful. these regulations keep joe from being truly connected to people - to influence people. he is forced to continue to live a life in isolation, in the stream of his thoughts, memories, yet personal growth and understanding. 

How injured is Joe? How much does it matter?

well. joe is more than injured. he doesnt have arms or legs. he is deaf. he doesnt even have a face. he is beyond injured. he is like incapable of every physical action - he is fed through his stomach. he compares it to being in the womb once again. i dont even really like this question, i think its kind of a hard question to answer, because like i said, he is more than injured. he is half alive, barely alive. he is closest to death than every other human being. so really to him, his body is barely there - he can not truly feel it or move it. he simply just breathes, and his body allows his conscience to go on and continue working. his conscience is all he has left. his conscience and the darkness and loneliness and suffering all around him. he is distant from everyone. so the fact that he is injured like this does matter. its matters to everything. because it keeps him away from everything, from everyone. having him only be drowning in his concious and unconcious self keeps him from even knowing what is real and what is a dream. only when the nurse comes is he once again connected to reality, to people, in a very distant way. but this matters. the fact that he is so lonely, in such darkness, andfilled with such thoughts make this life that he is living closer to death than ever. 

Gender Roles Extra Credit

i thought the gender roles were very interesting in the play. and oh yes - the play was wonderful!! so funny. good job everyone. 

the most obvious gender role in the play was of the queen. instead of being the "inferior degraded weak woman," she was quite the opposite. she was the dominant, much more powerful extravagant woman, and incredibly controlling. she is like the stereotypical controlling wife, who has power over her husband, speaks for him, thinks for him, etc. and it is obvious that the wife is insecure - therefore hungry for power. and meanwhile, then the king is the stereotypical cynical husband who somewhat succumbs to what his wife has to say and what the queen tells him to do. 

though this scenario clearly shows the dominance of woman, obviously, it in a way doesnt. because the people don't like the queen at all - everyone thinks shes ridiculous. and the king even makes fun of her behind her back and still has "the dominance" in a way. and this is clearly shown once he gets his voice back - when he starts yelling at her. like the male dominance has been "restored." because obviously the people/the crowd really liked the queen. boo ya. i think i got it. 

Girls

this is how you appear to be very pleasant to everyone around you. this is how you should act towards my friends. this is how you must eat when guests are around. never chew with your mouth open. this is how you live a good life. this is how you a successful. this is how you be the best christian possible. this is how you wont end up in hell, you dont want to end up in hell do you? this is how you can be trusted by us. this is how you will be a good child. this is how you wont get grounded. this is how you wont get sent away again. and how we wont be worried about you anymore. this is how to be a good girl, mallory! this is how to be a respectful woman. a good respectable christian woman. and thats how to not be trusted, and thats not what not do. but this is how you shoudl think. this is how you should be sympathetic and nice to others. this is how you should treat your sister and this is how you should feel when you do something wrong. you better feel that way when you do something wrong! this is what happens when you mess up. this is how you disappoint us.

i dont know if i did this right - not specifically related to gender. but more towardsmy family - though it does have to do with gender, compared to the way my brothers were taught and were treated. there was definately more focus on me - and my respect as a woman. i think my parents assumed that boys would more go their own way - find their path, but for me they feel the necessary to be hunched over my life, watching me and my moves and making sure i am staying out of trouble - just in case. my brother got engaged when he was 16. if i ever did that they would never trust me again. they would be so disappointed. but maybe since my brother is a boy - he was trusted more - his decisions and his independence. 

appearances - question 2

vazquez waits a while to disclose that brian and mickey are actually straight, but she does disclose this fact. i think she waits because as most peopleknow, there is already tons of prejudices and judgments towards homosexuals. so a story like this, as brutal as it is, isnt THAT surprising, because we know that many people have negative viewpoints on them. but i think she does this to demonstrate how important how appearance is - what it does and what it makes people percieve. that even us, the readers can be decieved. andi think she eventually discloses it to show us that even just this man's appearance that could associate him to being gay affects him greatly - affects him to the point that he almost died. and does the anigay violence change in any way when we recognize that sometimes its victims are heterosexual? honestly, to society i think it changes more. all together i dont think so - violence is violence. just like in the 60s and the civil rights movement - when there was plenty of prejudice against blacks - it is awful. there is no excuse for any person to be treated like this - but i think itmakes it more noticable to society when one realizes that the victims are heterosexual, because then they "recognize" that the victims are "innocent," that maybe this is going too far and that there may be much much more under the appearance. but in reality, gay people experience this all the time - they are the victims and these sort of situations need to be empathized with and dealt with when they are happening - not when straights start getting victimized.