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.
Hey V, I liked the points that you made about Paul Lazzaro's desire for revenge. I also talked about Lazzaro's crazy desire for revenge in my blog. The quote where he describes revenge as "the sweetest thing in life" shows just how cruel Lazzaro is. While I have not read Gone Girl, I like how you showed revenge is present in many different stories and even in the world today.
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