Mastering Time

In chapter 11 Joe decides he wants to be able to tell time. That presents itself to be difficult seeing how he can't see or hear. At the beginning of the chapter Joe tries very hard to keep him self busy and entertained. He starts thinking of old books and songs that he had read and heard and tries his best to remember all the lines. He then comes up with the idea of how he could possibly tell time. Loosing eye sight and sense of hearing are things he has to work around in order to reach his goal. The first thing he tries to do is calculate the time from when he was hit on september 18th and until the day he woke up. He soon comes to realize this is impossible and chooses a different method. His initial thought process was to count the seconds, minutes, and hours between each nurses' visit until he reached 24 hours but he can't focus that long so that method goes out the window. He then decides to distinguish the amount of bowl movements that occur and how often his sheets are changed between each nurse's visits. That doesn't exactly work so then he comes to the conclusion that the nurse probably baths him in the morning and estimates that it is around 2 hours between each visit. This one works and he can feel the change in temperature on his neck when he is being bathed. His methods are quite confusing to me but they work for him. I think he decides to master time so he can feel more alive and know what is going on. He wants to feel more of a part of the world and with being able to tell time he can't think of himself as similar to others out there in the world. He also wants to do it to be entertained so he isn't constantly bored. i

What is worth fighting for

In chapter 9 through 10 Joe is still stuck laying in his bed. In chapter 9 Joe remembers a camping trip with his father in which he brought a friend along with him. On the camping trip it is tradition for Joe to go fishing with his dad but he feels as if he is of age where he can go fishing with his friend and his dad agrees. The dad gives Joe's friend, Billy, his fishing rod which used to be his dad's. The boys loose Joe's dad's fishing rod and the whole walk back to camp Joe tries to think of what he is going to say. He tells his dad that he lost his rod and that he was really sorry. His dad simply tells him that it is okay and hugs him. Joe realizes it is his last trip with his dad and that next year he will be going to the mountains with all the other boys his age and his dad will be with all the other men. He snaps out of it and wakes up feeling very alone. In chapter 10 Joe thinks of why he actually went to war. He says that the army tricked him into going to war because he was fighting for freedom and liberty. he says that all the men who went to war didn't exactly know what they were fighting for while they were there and they ended up dyeing for democracy. In the end Joe realizes that the only thing worth fighting for is life and that is exactly what he is doing right now while he lies in is bed. Joe believes that fighting for democracy and liberty isn't worth the initial cost of death and harm. Joe is more than upset he got tricked into fighting because he didn't know why he as fighting but in the end life is only thing worth fighting for.