joe`s realization .

At the end of the novel, Joe finally realizes something so important. He realizes that he is apart of the future and that he could affect the future soldiers. These soldiers could be affected because they are actually seeing what could possibly happen to them at war. They would come to notice that they could end up like Joe, dead, or crippled. Therefore, it is somewhat a good thing that allowing Joe to go outside the hospital is against regulations. Not only does the hospital not want to let him out, but the government and military do not want to either because they do not want people to NOT fight for their country.

Being that the government has their opinion of not wanting Joe to leave the hospital, Joe has an opinion of the government. Joe is pointing the gun at people like the government, the people who want all these soldiers to go fight. He does not understand how these fighters are being told they are fighting for democracy, but at the same time everyone is fighting and killing each other. He does not like the fact that these people, like the government, are sending these soldiers over to fight and aren't even fighting themselves. The ones that are declaring and starting the wars are not even the ones that actually fight in the wars.