Reading Blog: Slaughter House - Five (Pg. 96 - 119)

These 23 pages are by far the craziest pages I have evere read in this book. Just during the first two pages, the author describes the situation which the English prisoners of war are in. They are by far the best fed and musculant bodies from all World War II. "The Englishmen were clean and enthusiastic and decent and strong. They sang boomingly well. They had been singing together every night for years. The Englishmen had also been lifting weights and chinning themselves for years. Their bellies were like washboards. The muscles of their calves and upper arms were like cannonballs. They were all masters of dominoes and anagrams and charades and Ping- Pong and billieards, as well." (Vonnegut 94). Although this quote doesn't fall in the page span of my title, it is by far the best quote that describes the Englishmen, and their conditions, in the German prison. The conditions the Englishmen were in were so much better than any Russian prisoner of war, that I had the impression that this may be, since Vonnegut was a prisoner of war, an illusion the author had when he saw the Englishmen in the German prison he was kept in. Well, comparing the conditions that these prisoners of war had with the rest of the prisoners of war, and the rest of the fighting soldiers of the World War II from both sides (axis, and allies), they are not only way better than any soldier of prisoner of war, but almost they almost seem imposible in the hell they were supposedly in. In books and movies, I had always been given the impression that the prisoners of war were unlucky men who would probably die just like the rest; however here, the Englishmen seemed as they owned the place. Maybe, as previously said, Vonnegut did have and illisuion about the apparent state of his English allies. Maybe they were in the same conditions as them, but in order to keep his moral high, he imagined them way beyond their state (much, much better).

In the interview Vonnegut states that the Bible for him was more of a master piece of literaure rather than a moral guide. Vonnegut is a atheist and he reflects this attitude pretty much in his novel Slaughter House -Five through its protagonist. Billy is in a hospital due to the fact that he has lost the meaning for life, he wants to stop living since life doesn't mean anything to him anymore. Usually, Christian believers, when they've lost the purpose of living, they rely on God, and his son Jesus to find another purpose of life. Their faith in the Holy Trinity keeps them alive, keeps them with hope; however, Billy doesn't show he believes in any superior being (excluding the Tralfamadorians) that looks upon him and his family. That is why Billy has such a hard time coming through his crisis, that is why Billy tries desperatly to reinvent his life using sci -fi books as his major help and probably inspiration since he is a atheist. "So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help." (Vonnegut, 101). However, when Billy came through his crisis, he had a turning point in his life, he came into the hospital being a neive little child, to become a married adult, which instead of giving life up, he tries to look for its meaning, reason for why he looks for a solution to things while he travels through time.