When Johnny comes marching home: historical and cultural significance

¶ … Johnny Comes Marching Home

In the chapter "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" taken from the book the Last Days of Innocence, Meirion and Susie Harris (1997) discuss all the major costs of the First World War, which include not just economic costs but societal, ecological, and altruistic ones as well that would change the world forever. The Harrieses begin their chapter by discussing the number of people who died in the First World War and the ways in which they died, which sets the tone for the entire chapter and more than likely brings their entire work full circle by the last sentence. The authors write with heavy hands, pointing out the costs and the repercussions of the war and making the point that the war was actually pretty much an overall waster -- of money and of human life.

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" has a tone that is difficult to define. While it appears to be somber in nature, there is something almost sarcastic about the way that the Harrieses write. Perhaps it is more of a matter-of-fact style of writing, but considering the topic, it comes across as irreverent and, at times, insensitive. After all, the article is talking about the thousands of men who died for their country. The Harrieses do say that if the family visits the graves of the fallen today, they will find beautiful cemeteries that would never give the impression that these men died horrific deaths in war. Those images are forgotten in the peacefulness of the cemetery, which, it seems that the Harrieses, find somewhat ignoring of what really happened. They write in a way that makes it seem as if this in itself makes a statement about this particular war. Is it that nobody wants to remember what really happened? Is it that the war did not change anything and was thus for nothing? Did these men, they seem to question, die in vain?

The authors go on to discuss what happened to the men who came back from war. They write about blacks and women being found working their jobs (as if this was a horrible thing -- indeed, it was this war that helped the emancipation of women because of this fact). The Harrieses make light almost of the situation that many of the wounded found themselves in when they returned home as most of them had suffered from gangrene and thus amputation. There were different levels of prosthetics that the men were given -- some nicer than others. For those men who worked in the fields in soil -- they were given prosthetic legs with bigger feet. Some men who worked in nice shops with customers who would care how they looked received what were called "Sunday Arms" -- like Sunday clothing, much nicer than average. While these things may be true, it is not so much in the facts that the Harrieses are giving the reader, but it is in the way they write it.

Overall, the writers really capture what is perhaps best defined as disillusionment. The men who returned home were drastically altered men -- quite literally. They returned home to parades, but when the parades ended, there they were with their physical bodies mutilated and their jobs gone. They had to witness the men who stayed behind receiving great money at their jobs, while the veterans were forced to find some way back into society -- and a society that was much more expensive than when they left.

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is relevant today because it captures a lot of the same feelings of disillusionment and not just for the people coming home but for the people who stay home and support (or don't support) the war from afar. Men and women today return home changed people who face tremendous challenges. Perhaps the medical care -- including mental health care -- is better now though than it was during the First World War. Still, there are many who remain disillusioned and perhaps even bitter once they get home. This was quite true for the soldiers who returned home from Vietnam for certain.