Reading Blog: Slaughter House - Five (Pg. 52-71)

I started reading this chapter, and as soon as I got into page 55, where the narrator describes the condition in which the prisoners of war (pow) were kept, and he mentions the use of fire to keep them warm supplied to them by the Germans. "Billy and Weary were taken inside, where it was warm and smoky. There was a fire sizzling and popping in the fireplace." (Vonnegut, 55). I was impressed, because my view of a war and its prisoners of war obviosly were dull, cold, and inhumane. What movies and some text books tell me is that the "pow" died frecuently due to the cold and inhumane places where the Germans kept them which were similar to their concentration camps. Well, I have to be honest and accept the fact that if I were to capture the enemy, in my case a soldier form Las Farc", I would basically take out information from him, even if it means applying harsh punishments on him, and then I would dispose him since he would only be an extra burden; however, here, as I said before, the "pow's" were treated in a very "humane" way for being prisoners of war in the Second World War (before the declaration of Human Rights).

Now, I also noticed how Vonnegut expresses through his book the media manipulation that, although the viewers don't realize, happens. "He took pictures of Billy's and Roland Weary's feet. The picture was widely published two days later as heartening evidence of how miserably equipped the American Army often was, despite its reputation for being rich." (Vonnegut, 58). Here media manipulation was widely present due to the fact that the American Army was well equipped, but days before, when the Amercan prisoners of war were captured, the Germans had taken their supplies in exchange for theirs. This is the way how Vonnegut showed how the media in the world is manipulated constantly to make the public react in the way the person controlling the press wants the viewers to react.

I remember talking about the strange way Billy Pilgrim had become "unstuck" in time, well, as I read from page 52 to page 71, I became more convinced that Billy is in fact not stuck in the present, but he is still stuck in time. "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future" (Vonnegut, 60). I Billy can't alter any of the past way which humans know time runs on, then it is basically useless being "unstuck in time, because Billy will still live his life the same way he would have lived it without knowing what is waiting for him, since he can't change the present, nor the future (as the quote so explains).

As I advanced in the novel, I realized another comparison the author, Kurt Vonnegut, had made with our world. Well, in page 68, the author mentions an American soldier who was previously a hobo telling Billy that he had not onlu been more hungry than they were then, but that he had been in an even worse place than the container they were now packed in. "I been hungrier than this, the hobo told Billy. I been in worse places than this. this ain't so bad." (Vonnegut, 68). How is ti that a human bieng is in a worse condition during his daily life than in a freezing weather inside a container with absolutley nothing to eat? It really shocked me the inequality we live in in this world. This statement also made me think, was Vonnegut a communist? Was he trying to show the reader the effects of savage capitalism? Maybe? I'd had to investigate further on the author of this great novel.

Finally, before I finished this cahpter, a couple of words capture my attention "Human Beings". Never before where this two particular words mentioned. And, as I read them I pictured in my mind what the typical behaviour of a good HUMAN BEING should be (which in fact is true, and if every person in the world were like this, we wouldn't have wars and poverty). "When food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. The shared." (Vonnegut 70).