This may sound like kind of an obvious message, but it remains true that appearances can be deceiving The narrator tells his sons in Chapter 1 that they are not to participate in massacres, but Billy Pilgrim willingly sends his son Robert off to Vietnam, presumably to kill people. Even Princess, an imposing German shepherd, is just a frightened animal, cold and unfamiliar with war. But up close, all the dogs we meet in the book are loyal and likable. ![]() ![]() They indicate that the German troops are nearby and sound terrifying. These dogs appear briefly, and we don't want to read too much into this, but it does seem significant that when Billy is on the run from the Germans in Luxembourg, he sometimes hears dogs barking. There is Sandy, the narrator's dog Spot, a (sadly deceased) dog of Billy's and Princess, the freezing cold German shepherd who accompanies the soldiers that capture Billy and Roland Weary in the cold forests of Luxembourg. These are all just quotes from this site: There are a bunch of dogs in this novel. This could be Vonnegut once again bringing up the point of an inability to change what has happened and the need to accept these things for what they are and to look at them objectively and from afar in a simple manner. Its mono-sylabolic (that can't be spelt right) and I seem to remember Vonnegut building up to this finale with quite a simple, 'matter of fact' sort of tone and structure of direct terms and sentences, not digressing into any great lengthy descriptions. Also, the phrase 'poot-tee-weet' is so very very simple. ^ I reckon they're kind of on the money with this. ^this stuff about the british is an idea in the making and would require a seccond reading of the text by me to fully explore (and even confirm) it entirely. The british soldiers are in many ways a 'diamond in the rough' in the prison camp (and the war for that matter) and they have achieved this by following methodic routine. Vonnegut may, through this character, be implying that freedom isn't actualy all that centeral to the human character at all. He has shown that a human can behave in many ways like a machine, always doing the same thing over and over again each day of the week and that this has had huge benifits for him and for the rest of the british soldiers around him. I think that this character compliments the idea of free will being a benign sort of a notion well. every day and makes sure that he does this otherwise he fears he will slip into depression for having nothing to do. He describes to billy how he ensures that he shaves, showers etc. He described to billy how he has developed a sort of ryhthmic, methodic routine whilst he has been in the war camp. He described to billy the fierce structure that he has in his life. I can't even remember his name but he was the British soldier (if you've read the book you'll know who i'm talking about). ![]() I'll write a little bit about a character I found interesting in the book. Another good example of this is when one of the Tralfalmadorians describes the end of the universe to Billy and billy asks them why they don't change it and (yet another recurring motiff) they respond with something like: 'because the moment is structured that way'. Here's quote from sparknotes about the topic:Īlso, that recurring motiff of the phrase 'so it goes' implies a lack of controll for people in their lives. Simmilarly, Billy seemingly lacks controll over his life. It's something along the lines of 'we have surveyed hundreds of planets and Earth is the only one where there is any notion of free will' (not the actual quote, but it's something along those lines). There's a quote from one of the Tralfalmadorians somewhere in the book. Themes Free Will (or lack thereof) Throughout the book the notion of free will is questioned. At the moment the quotes from the text I have used below are just from my memory (and i have only read it once) so they will all almost definately be paraphrased and wrong. You might find nothing but clay and dirt or you might find a nice bit of coal to take home if you (and I) are lucky. Also, right now these are just the somewhat incoherent ramblings of a 17 year old boy with too many thoughts flooding his head and not enough knowledge of the text to weed out the good ones from the bad ones.
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