Slaughterhouse Five - pgs 120-136

Following Billy's marriage and honeymoon night, we hear his wife Valencia ask him about war. The author then states, "It was a simple-minded thing for a female Earthling to do, to associate sex and glamor with war." (pg 121) How is this statement true? Could Vonnegut believe a common belief amongst uneducated women to be that a soldier makes a good lover? Another interesting part of this sentence is the use of the word "Earthling" instead of simply stating that a woman thought this, what did Vonnegut want to say with this? Maybe these kinds of relations are very "Earth-like" in the way that they're absurd like war. How could killing make someone a better lover?

Following this event, Billy travels back to the POW camp where he is under the effects of morphine and he limps outside the hospital. He gets snagged in a fence and meets a Russian. Billy is so doped he can't unsnagg himself so the Russian does it for him and Billy leaves. "The Russian waved to him, and called after him in Russian, 'Good Bye.' "(pg 124) This might not seem like much to some, but this event gave me strong feelings. In this vast camp, the POW's are actually in the center of a larger extermiantion camp where Russians are basically starved to death. In this terrible atmosphere the Russian's kind action seems almost paradoxical. The phrase "good-bye" also appears more solemn than a simply "bye" or "see ya later", maybe Vonnegut did this unintentionally but "good-bye" gives the effect of gone forever, of lost hope. Could Vonnegut have added this to contrast the inhumanity of war with the humanity of the individual? At least in me it had that effect.

"That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book." (pg 125) I had not mentioned it before, but ocassionally the author refers to himself in the book like in this moment. I feel this adds to the reality of war, how it affects us all but with its brief mentioning also highlights the impersonality of violence.

Despite being small descriptions and word choices, I feel these are what make Slaughterhouse Five a great anti-war novel as it gives the reader very strong feelings in very few words.