Slaughterhouse Five - pgs 52-71

The next chapter in Slaughterhouse pick up during Billy and Ronald's capture. It describes the state of the German soldiers that captured them. They were old, ragged, some even without shoes. This inmediately reminded me of Billy himself. In war, the fighters are not soldiers, they are family members with different jobs and occupations. They don't want war, they simply want to return home. At this point I remebered a movie I recently saw called 300. During the movie, 300 Spartans meet up with an Athenian army and the Athenin general rebukes the Spartans for coming in such a small force. Then the Spartan general asks the Athenians their occupations and as they say lumberjack, pottery maker, etc. it resembled this event in the novel.

As Billy lay in the ground after Ronald's beating, he saw a young German soldier, "The boy was as beautiful as Eve." (pg 53) What is the meaning of this? Why is the boy compared ot Eve? He is later compared to an androgyne. This reminds me of some science fiction movies where the aliens have no clearly defined gender, they posses characterisitcs of both male and female. Could this be similar in the novel? Could the boy be some kind of foreshadow of the Trafalmadorians that abduct Billy? I hope there is more relevance of this strange description in the novel.

After the capture, Billy was taken to a nearby house filled with more American POW's. There he goes forward in time for a brief period, then he goes back to WWII as he is awakened by a German soldier. This further sustains my theory that the time travel is like dreaming, where the observer is part of the story but can't affect it while he forms part of it. Billy is then moved into a single river of POW's into Germany. Here Vonnegut wrties a great description of the movement of the prisoners:

"Through the valley flowed a Mississippi of humiliated Americans. Tens of thousands of Americans shuffled eastward, their hands clasped on top of their heads. They sighed and groaned." (pg 64)

The image given to the reader is of impersonality, thousands of scared soldiers moving like one, each individual lacking importance. What really shocks the reader is the impression of vastness given. I believe it is at these points during the story, those descriptions of humanity or impersonality in war that make this text one of the great anti-war books of the century. What is still leaves me thinking is the importance of time traveling to the anti-war them of the book. How does this unique tool work to give the reader the desired effect?

As Billy reached a trainyard where all the prisoners were being classified and placed in cars I inmediately remebered concentration camps. The moving of people like cattleheads is a really strong image and what really makes me reflect is the fact that its true. During the trainyard event, we meet a character named "Wild Bob" he is a sick colonel who is delirious and believes his regiment is with him, when in truth all his regiment is dead. This character made me feel pityful and reminded me of how the horrors of war can mark a person in spirit. What made this thought even worse was, "The germans carried the corpse out. The corpse was Wild Bob. So it goes." (pg 69) The coldness and impersonality of this death really gives a chill to the reader and Vonnegut likely chose to write impersonally, like if it was a news report, to generate this effect on the reader.

So far into the novel, the effect of generating really vivid images of war and of the horrors occuring there has been very effective in creating anti-war sentiments in me.