He Is Eventually Killed

“There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces.” (pg.164). The only character of the story is himself, Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut talks a lot about “poor old Derby”, he is very shocked that he was killed by a series of shooting. He talks about him like if he were a much loved person in his life. As he himself says, he is one of the only real characters of his story, besides himself. Derby reminds me of the father in La Vita e Bella he was also killed shot many time against a wall. Guido (the father) was also the only one trying to be a character; he was inventing a story for his son not to be discouraged by the horrid environment of war, and he was the protagonist of the story. This also happens during World War II. He is eventually killed, as is Derby.

As we discussed, the way Vonnegut has organized the events and the way he talks about the bombing is not as expected. How can the song of a foursome be described and given more importance to than the actual bombing of Dresden. A big part of the chapter is Billy’s reaction to the quartet singing. “Billy thought hard about the effect the quartet had on him, and then found an association with an experience he had had long ago.” (pg. 177) Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel that reflects how traumatized was Kurt by the war. Everything that is happening has a connection to the effect war had on him. The a description of the bombing and the people dying and what happens to him in war is not at all the point of the book. Kurt simply wants to show us how what is war, the consequences not the actual war. If what he wanted to do was write a book on everyday at war, with full description and tragedy memories, he would have done that. He didn’t.