The+Furlough


 * The Big Questions: How does this chapter fit the novel as a whole / Why is it important / What should a good reader take away from this chapter?**
 * Every character seems to be going through a slight adjustment to their personalities in this book. For example, in the beginning of this chapter, Jess has a silly, care-free personality, as does any 3rd grade boy. He runs around pulling pranks on people and acting like a fool, however, towards the middle of the chapter, Jess mentions that he wants to be more grown-up, and enter the army, just like Johnson even though he has no idea what it is like to handle being an adult. Also, Johnson has the same kind of personality as Jess in the earlier chapters. He joins the army, falls deeply in love, and as a result, starts taking life more seriously. He did not joke around with Jess anymore, or pull pranks on people like in "The Posse." grandmother starts out being very strict early on in the book. Jess, Johnson and his dad ate all of her special candies and she kicked them out of the house for quite a while with the same boring thing to eat every day, eggs. In "The Beard," Jess's grandmother sees Jess and his dad run out of the house looking guilty after having let lose the terror of Uncle Gurton's beard. Regardless, she gave almost no punishment at all. Even though her personality change was not in this chapter, it is just another example of the personality changes that the characters are going through. In conclusion, this chapter was important both by itself and to the novel as a whole because it held some pretty significant personality changes in some of the characters. A good reader should notice not only that some characters undergo a personality alteration, but also that this piece foreshadows that Johnson's future as a soldier does not look so bright. (Weber)

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 * A major thing that I noticed in this chapter was Jess' complete and utter faith that Johnson would be the one to kill Hitler. Jess does seem to realize that thousands of others had gone overseas before, with the same goal in mind, and that thousands had died trying to acheive that goal. But never in this chapter does he express an inch of doubt that Johnson, and orphaned farmhand from North Carolina, would be able to do it, even when so many had failed. In fact, at one point he goes so far as to express disbelief that the army had not just gone ahead and send Johnson overseas so that they could get the war over with. I think that this chapter fits into the book as a whole in that it goes into great detail about the relationships that exists between Jess, Johnson, and Joe Robert". It also provides a stark contrast to the following chapter, the telegraph, in which things are not quite so upbeat and hopeful. (Zoellick)
 * This chapter is important because it comes right before the "Telegram" and it looks like the author's way of closing up Johnson as a character. We see in this chapter the Johnson has really grown up since the beginning of the book. He's found a girl he wants to marry and it seems that his days of childish pranks are over. Johnson seems to think that this fact alone makes him completely grown up but in reality he's not. Johnson is still a child in the fact that just because he's fallen in love with a girl he can leave the army when he wants to. Johnson still has the immature mindset of "just because I don't want to do it, that means I don't have to." Joe Robert uses some tricks to sabotage Johnson's gum and ruin his relationship. Even though Johnson going back to war is what caused him to die, I think it was a smart idea to for the author to leave his readers with a completely knew and more matured Johnson. (harris)
 * This is where Johnson comes back as an adult, which is important because after his return, all of the family seems to be more mature and less whimsical, the return of Johnson was a moving event for the family. when Johnson reveals his plans of going A.W.O.L. and eloping, Joe is instantly assigns himself to thwarting his plans. while Joes plan is effective, Johnson still seem changed, and we know that it was because of his love life, but because of his time in the army. (Gangemi)
 * In this chapter Johnson comes home from the army. This is such a happy occasion, yet while reading I picked up some grief. Jess rarely gets to see Johnson one he gets home because of school, sleep, girls, ect. The reader can easily pick up a since of desperateness from Jess. It almost seems as if Jess is already being prepared to be separated from his new “older brother” just by the fact he keeps missing him. The reader gets the same feeling when they drop Johnson at the train station. Even though the scene is supposed to be sad, the reader picks up something more than sadness. The chapter does a good job of preparing you for the sorrow and grief to come when we find out Johnson dies (Dorothy Spratlin).

**Important Quotes (and commentary)**
 * "Even after my father drove Johnson away my grandmother and mother and I said nothing, but went up on the porch to wait in the cold wind for my father to return. Perhaps we would never speak again; perhaps without meaning to, we had taken a religious vow we could not understand."
 * This is the core passage in which a good reader should realize that Jess is foreshadowing Johnson's fate. They may as well have put the writing in big, bold font with a sign next to it saying "FORESHADOWING." (Weber)


 * "I could see that he had changed. He was an older person than he used to be; he'd had to make himself older because of the war. And I felt that I should go about getting older too; it was my responsibility. The first thing I would do would be to pack up all my toys and put them away. No more play-pretend, either, with rocks and bricks and so forth. All that was behind me now, and I straightened my shoulders back and began to talk like an adult."
 * This is when Jess realizes who he is and wants to change to become more adult-like so one day he can be as big and strong as Johnson. (Sanders)
 * Here, I noticed that just as a son would emulate his father in attempts to grow up exactly the same, Jess had begun to look up to Johnson. Johnson, now more mature and experienced in the way war operated, had return home as a new role model for Jess. It is amazing how after just a few gestures,changes in his speech and posture, Jess immediately felt that he should be like Johnson, who in Jess' eyes had become a real man. (Maia Y)


 * "I wanted to see Johnson in his uniform as soon as soon as possible because it wpuld be the uniform that made him a different person, that turned him into the man who was going to kill Hitler."
 * This quote illustrates Jess' faith in Johnson, and shows how much he looks up to Johnson and how he fully belives that this man, really little more than a boy, has the capacity to acheive anything. (Zoellick)

> > ~This is the quote that give me the feeling Johnson isn’t going to ever come back. (Dorothy Spratlin) >
 * “Even after my father drove Johnson away my grandmother and mother and I said nothing, but went up on the porch to wait in the cold wind for my father to return. Perhaps we would never speak again; perhaps, without meaning to we had taken a religious vow we could not understand.” (Dorothy Spratlin)
 * Moments of astonishingly good writing**


 * "He was a weary-looking little man with gray hair and gray eyes and discolored teeth. He had six children, three girls and three boys, and I'd heard my father say that it must be a pretty tough go for old man Lee. His wife had been dead for ten years and his mother moved in to help do for them. But she too had died in a short while and his maiden sister, who was not entirely right in the head, had taken her mother's place.
 * "This is astonishingly good writing because Jess summarizes a kind-of important character in a short, but to-the-point fashion. (Weber)


 * "His khaki uniform lay folded precisely on the chair and I went over and examined it for a long time, running my finger along the crisply starched folds and touching the gleaming buttons and the shiny friction belt buckle. I wanted to see Johnson in his uniform as soon as possible because it would be the uniform that made him a different person, that turned him in to the man who was going to kill Hitler"
 * This is good writing because the description the author uses appeals to the reader's sense of feel. As you're reading this book, it's almost as if you yourself are touching the uniform. In the same paragraph, the author also managed to show Jess's new opinion of Johnson and how much he admires him.

> > ~ This bit of writing really expresses the sadness and grief the family felt, and really allow the reader to relate. (Dorothy Spratlin) > >
 * “The next Saturday morning his furlough was over. It was planned for us all to ride with him over to the Tipton train station and see him off. But one after another we hung back and said we couldn’t go, after that there was some task or other needing urgent attention. The truth was that we couldn’t bare to see him get on the train, lost in a crowd of soldiers and strangers; we couldn’t bare to watch the train pull out of the dumpy little station, its black engine smoke like a pall, and hear the weeing of the kinfolk of soldiers far and near.”