Chapter 8- Remind me, what is this war for?

     Once again, I have connected my blog to the negative aspects of war since I feel like it is a theme of the novel. Vonnegut shares the reality of war which is that "people are discouraged from being characters" (164). Therefore, the novel contains few characters in Vonnegut's opinion.  One phrase that I could relate to the Twilight Saga: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer is "most of the people in it [war] are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces" (164). Although the Twilight Saga is often the subject of ridicule, blatant parallels exist between this statement in chapter eight and Eclipse. In the third installment of Bella and Edward's love story, a vengeful vampire named Victoria creates a bloodthirsty army (literally!) in order to kill Bella. Her army of newborn vampires can only recognize their addiction to human blood since they have just been created. Because the army is consumed with their thirst, they are in a state of bedlam and consternation. None of the newborns are aware that their purpose is to unite as an army. Manipulating the newborns who will do anything to satisfy their insatiable thirst, Victoria is the mastermind behind this entire plan. Hence she is an "enormous force" just as the warring nations in WWII are enormous forces that use soldiers to achieve the end goal of victory without realizing the gruesome consequences.

Chapter 8- Antihero

     Introduced in chapter eight, Howard W. Campbell Jr., "an American who had become a Nazi", can be described an an antihero (162). The very idea that an American could morph into a person who practices Nazi values practically screams "antihero"; moreover, Campbell proves to be an antihero through his words and actions. His dress included a motley of American elements coupled with Nazi symbols which is a disgrace to America. Since America's foundation is the principle that all men are created equal, American ideals and Nazi principles are on different wave lengths entirely. By disgracing the American name through his clothing, Campbell is an antihero who is hated by the American soldiers at Dresden. One of the especially vocal soldiers was Edgar Derby who could not allow Campbell to behave so despicably. Derby confronted Campbell by referring to him as "something much lower than a snake or a rat- or even a blood-filled tick" (164). Additionally, Edgar Derby reiterates the fact that Nazis are loathed by Americans by "speaking of the brotherhood between the Americans and the Russian people, and how those two nations were going to crush the disease of Nazism, which wanted to infect the whole world" (164). In response to Derby's name calling, "Campbell smiled". His nearly sinister reaction further illustrates the fact that Howard W. Campbell Jr. lacks morality which seals his status as an antihero.

Chapter 7- Go to your happy place...

      Due to his time travels, Billy Pilgrim already knows that the plane he chartered to a convention in Montreal will crash and that everyone except himself and the copilot will perish. Therefore, minutes before the plane was to meet its demise, Billy Pilgrim "closed his eyes, traveled in time back to 1944" (156). Since my summer has been mainly consumed with summer work and Friends reruns, I thought of an episode that I had recently watched. In this episode, Phoebe tells Chandler to go to his happy place after breaking up with his girlfriend. I couldn't help but relate Billy Pilgrim to Phoebe's advice because he unknowingly followed it. Often, people block out bad memories or current inopportune situations by thinking "happy thoughts". This is a defense mechanism that can be used to focus on good memories rather than unfortunate occurances. Billy Pilgrim employs this coping method in order to escape the grim reality of the plane crash.

Chapter 7- Simile

     While being rescued at the airplane crash site in chapter seven, Billy Pilgrim is aided by Austrian ski instructors. To Billy Pilgrim, "they looked like golliwogs" (156) with their black masks and red topknots. I did not understand this simile at first since I had never heard of a golliwog. According to Wikipedia, golliwogs were black rag dolls that became popular after World War II. They were considered to be toys for little boys because they were usually male. These dolls are considered by many to be a cultural tradition to be preserved; however, others believe that the dolls promote racism. Now, these dolls are rare and no longer mass produced as children's toys. Even Billy Pilgrim seems to believe that golliwogs have a negative connotation, for he says that the ski instructors were "like white people pretending to be black for the laughs they could get"(156). This shows that just twenty five years after WWII people found golliwogs rather offensive.

Chapter 6- Revenge!

     Paul Lazzaro sought revenge upon anyone who ever wronged him including animals. For instance, in order to punish a dog who had bitten him, Paul fed the dog a steak filled with sharp, pernicious peices of a clock spring which killed the defenseless animal. After recapitulating this story to Billy Pilgrim and Edgar Derby, Lazzaro said, "Anybody ever ask you what the sweetest thing in life is...it's revenge."(139).  Similarly, Paul Lazzaro orchestrated Billy Pilgrim's death, as I discussed in my previous post. This vengeful character reminded me of the main character, Amy Dunne, in a novel that I just enjoyed called Gone Girl, written by Gillian Flynn. Amy wanted to penalize her husband, Nick, for not appreciating her as a husband should; therefore, she staged her own murder and framed Nick. At first glance, Lazzaro and Dunne do not appear to be very similar, but the way in which Amy calculated her revenge mirrors Lazzaro's. Neither of the two acted immediately on their victims. Paul waited years to kill Billy, just as Amy carefully contrived to tear apart her husband for an entire year. These characters illustrate the fact that revenge often drives people to commit despicable crimes.

Chapter 6- Eulogy

Usually, a eulogy is about someone who has recently died; therefore, it is obviously orated by someone other than the deceased. However, Billy Pilgrim delivers his own eulogy since "as a time-traveler he has seen his own death many times"(141). He is certain that his death will be at the hands of Paul Lazzaro who still demands to ascertain revenge for the death of Roland Weary. Also, Billy Pilgrim knows that he will die on February 13, 1976. On this day, he is to address a crowd while in Chicago and discuss his time traveling expeditions. While in the middle of his speech, Billy predicts that he will die within the hour and jokes about it by saying, "'It is high time I was dead.'"(142). Shocked, the crowd protests, but Billy Pilgrim assures them that he embraces death for that was the message of his speech. This eulogy is rather optimistic since Billy does not condemn his own death. After sending his police protection home, Billy Pilgrim is shot by a laser gun which results in his death. "So it goes."

Chapter 5- Billy Pilgrim and the pilgrims

                  

While reading the near fifty pages of chapter five, I made a significant connection between Billy Pilgrim's last name and the first settlers of America, also named pilgrims. Upon reading the comment made by Billy's mother, "'The Pilgrims are coming up in the world.'"(119), I recognized the fact that Vonnegut may have used the name "Pilgrim" to allude to the pilgrims. Just as Billy is "coming up in the world" through his occupation, the pilgrims came up in the world by establishing colonies in America. Additionally, Billy Pilgrim can be similarly be described as a trailblazer because of his journeys to Tralfamadore. This symbolism is deepened since Billy is the first human to speak of his sojourn to the alien world just as the pilgrims were some of the first to trek to America which was considered an alien world during that time period. Therefore, the name "Pilgrim" is more than a mere coincidence.

Chapter 5- Anthropomorphism (Personification)

   While in the hospital for veterans three years after the war, Billy Pilgrim notices a bottle of water on his bedside table. The personification's inception is "The water was dead. So it goes."(101). Since water cannot literally die, the dead water is used to illustrate the fact that Billy feels dead while in the hospital although he is not actually deceased. This also represent Billy's outlook on life since "Billy didn't really like life at all"(102). Moreover, the water is further described in detail; "Air was trying to get out of that dead water. Bubbles were clinging to the walls of the glass, too weak to climb out.". Because bubbles can neither be physically weak nor physically climb, they represent Billy Pilgrim's feelings of entrapment and helplessness. Hopefully, these feelings of despair dissipate throughout the novel.

Chapter 4- Wonderland or Tralfamadore?!

     Before journeying to Tralfamadore, Billy Pilgirm encounters a bottle of champagne. "'Drink me,' it seemed to say."(73). This small little command reminded me of Alice and Wonderland. As I thought about it further, I realized that Alice and Billy possessed some similarities. Both were traveling to mystical places titled Wonderland and Tralfamadore, respectively. Additionally, upon their returns, no one believed that they had actually traveled to such unbelievable locations. Also, the bottles of shrinking and growing potions that Alice imbibed allowed her passage into Wonderland through a door. By drinking the champagne, Billy was also whisked away to Tralfamadore although the champagne did not actually result in his journey. Even though the allusion is rather indirect, Vonnegut was comparing Billy and Alice through the use of the champagne.

Chapter 4- Imagery

   While traveling by train as a prisoner of war, Billy Pilgrim hears the bark of a dog. A simile is constructed by Vonnegut, "With the help of fear and echoes and winter silences that dog had a voice like a big bronze gong."(82). Upon reading this, I noticed the imagery that Vonnegut evokes through the simile by engaging the reader's sense of sound. The actual comparison of the dog's voice and a bronze gong presents the emotion of loneliness and the silence that generally coincides with it. Since the dog's bark was loud enough to resonate "like a big bronze gong", the reader is made aware of the silent solitude that Billy Pilgrim feels. Also, the image of "winter silences" elicits fear and a feeling of loneliness which undoubtably mirrors Billy Pilgrim's feelings as he traveled in the train. Unaware of his fate at the hands of his captors, Billy Pilgrim feels all alone which makes the simile on page 82 mean much more than just the sound of a dog barking loudly.

Chapter 3- Still an Innocent

While pondering the symbolism of the golden boots discussed in my previous blog post, I was reminded of the Taylor Swift song "Innocent". In this song, Swift tells the audience that they are still innocent despite their prior transgressions by saying, "Who you are is not where you've been. You're still an innocent.". This coincides with Billy Pilgrim's desire for innocence and purity in his life. Although Pilgrim has seen the gruesome tragedies that encompass war, he still longs for purity. Taylor Swift musicalizes this desire present in every human.

Chapter 3- Symbol

While being captured as a prisoner of war, Billy Pilgrim encounters a German commander who possesses a pair of golden calvary boots. A story is recapitulated stating that Adam and Eve could be seen in the depths of the boots when the commander polished them. Oblivious to this prior occurance, Billy Pilgrim stared into the boots and saw Adam and Eve. Naked, "They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them."(53). These boots symbolize the purity intrinsic to a part of all humans. Since both the commander and Billy Pilgrim visualized Adam and Eve in the boots, this intimates to a desire for purity within the two men. Vonnegut symbolizes the human desire for putiry through the boots by connecting them with the first and once purest humans. Also, the symbol acquires a deeper meaning since Adam and Eve were corrupted by worldly temptation as most humans are today. These temptations and imperfections of life are evident in the experience of the commander who was described to be "sick of war". Living a life of violence due to service in the armed forces, the man clings to the one article of innocence he has left, which are the boots. Through this symbol, Vonnegut shows that Billy Pilgrim strives for morality and purity despite his life of chaos and violence due to war.

Chapter 2- So it goes.

"Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes.'" (27)

Used frequently in chapter two, the phrase "So it goes." refers to death. For example, when talking about the death of Billy Pilgrim's father, Vonnegut writes, "His father died in a hunting accident during the war. So it goes."(24). This minute little phrase is too meaniful and too often repeated to be ignored. I believe that Vonnegut uses this phrase to illustrate the fact that every one eventually dies. Additionally, he takes this nearly passive attitude towards death as a sort of defense mechanism. "So it goes" is a way of desensitizing himself toward the reality of death. Billy Pilgrim apparently adopted this phrase from the Tralfamadorians which shows that his state of mind was influenced by what he believes to be an alien abduction. In light of this phrase, Billy's "alien abuction" might just be a peculiar interpretation of events in his life. Additionally, most people fear death; therefore, Vonnegut uses the phrase to prepare himself for his own inevitable end. Later on in Slaughterhouse Five, "so it goes" may come to symbolize something greater than what it seems in this chapter, but for now all I can say is, "So it goes.".

Chapter 2- Motivation

"He [Roland Weary] had been unpopular because he was stupid and fat and mean, and smelled like bacon no matter how much he washed." (35)

Based upon the above description, one can understand why others did not particularly want to be associated with Roland Weary.  Since Roland was always "ditched in Pittsburgh by people who did not want him with them", he would seek out a victim to befriend whom he would later beat up. This pattern can be described as motivation since Roland's motivation for beating up people stems from the detrimental impact of being constantly ditched by his peers. In order to feel powerful, Roland would victimize innocents such as Billy Pilgrim. When Roland realized that he was not included in the scout clique, the Three Musketeers, his pain morphed into violence against Billy as a form of retribution. Weary nearly shattered Pilgrim's spine until he realized that he had an audience to his odious act. Due to his negative motivation, Roland consistently transformed himself into the same being as his catalysts, a bully.

Chapter 1- War Desensitizes

                                     "Heck no...I've seen lots worse than that in the war."

While working as a police reporter, Vonnegut is exposed to many tradegies including the accidental death of a man who was squashed by a car. He is rather unaffected by this event despite the fact that he was the one who informed the deceased man's wife about the accident. When asked if the morbid incident bothered him, Vonnegut replied, " Heck no...I've seen lots worse than that in the war." (10). This particulary resonated with me because I felt sympathy toward the man and his wife; hence, I was bewildered at Vonnegut's indifference. This lead me to the conclusion that war desensitizes people, especially soldiers.
An example of similar detatchment due to violence is the pop culture phenomenon, the Hunger Games. Due to the reality of death in the Hunger Games, it can be compared to the bloodshed of war. In both situations, one fictional, the other all too real, all parties involved are desensitized to tragedy and violence.

Chapter 1- Allusion

At the end of Chapter One, Vonnegut stumbles upon the story of Lot and his wife in the motel copy of the Bible. The author reiterates the fact that Lot's wife looked back at the life she once knew, and he says, "I love her for that, because it was so human.". He uses this allusion to describe the quality of his book. Setting himself and the audience up for disappointment, Vonnegut declares that his book will undoubtably be a failure since a "pillar of salt" will have written it. The use of this allusion highlights the fact that Vonnegut finds himself and all humans to be inadequate. Too often, people sugar coat the fact that all humans make mistakes; therefore, I admire Vonnegut's blatant admission of imperfection through the use of this allusion.