hidden in the lining. One was shaped like a
pea. The other was shaped like a tiny horseshoe. Billy
received a message carried by the radiations. He was
told not to find out what the lumps were. He was advised
to be content with knowing that they could work
miracles for him, provided he did not insist on learning their nature. That was all right with Billy Pilgrim. He was grateful. He was glad (Vonnegut 137)
In this excerpt, I find it quite interesting why did Billy, after having received this message, insisted in looking at the objects, and even worse, showing them to a random doctor who was scolding him. Why him? Why the doctor, or any other man for that matter? Did Billy sense a connection with the doctor strong enough to make him reveal, and disobey the explicit message received at the hospital through radiations, the mystery of the object in his muff? Also, Billy nearly foresees every important event in his life, from the saucer abduction, to the future of his marriage, so why in the world was in incapable of foreseeing what the horseshoe object was? And even more surprisingly, this horseshoe object turned out to be his engagement ring, which seals his matrimony with Valencia.
Lazzaro, I read this name and remembered the Bible, I remembered the story I read in the King James Bible about a dying person who, thanks to Jesus Christ, is miracously cured and saved from the disease that threatened his life. In the book Lazzaro is a car thief who constantly seeks revenge, a feeling which basically creates a chain reaction of violence. "Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is - said Lazzaro, it's revenge." (Vonnegut 139). With this said I thought of Vonnegut making Lazzaro as a figure to mock the Bible, and Christianity by that matter, since it means that Jesus is so Merciful that he gave life to a killer, which in fact is going to take the life of many, making, indirectly though, Jesus a killer. Why, Why does Vonnegut have to disrespect Christianity (if my interpretation is really the message the author wanted the reader to get)?
Then I encountered another attempt made by Vonnegut to insult Christianity, which made me think, that this book is in fact a mockery of the world we live in. Vonnegut criticizes war, which is now considered almost a natural state for humans, vengeance, the world's religion, the world's leading nation (its gilded society), etc. "It is time for you to go home to your wives and children, and it is time for me to be dead for a little while - and then live again." (Vonnegut 143). This view of death is the perspective that the Tralfamadorians gave Billy, which, I now interpreted as a way to mock the belief of resurrection that Christians have. Basically, the fact that everybody thinks that Billy is crazy when he states what he believes about death, which is basically what Christians believe about death, suggests that the author finds it not only untrue, but crazy. Also, the fact that Billy shows this belief throughout the book, suggests that this book is rather an inconspicuous way to mock the world's religion.
"Billy and Lazzaro and Derby didn't have to ask what the line meant. It was a familiar symbol from childhood." (Vonnegut 144). Once again we find Vonnegut criticizing the American society which, although it wasn't the only one, experienced one of the worst cases of segregation due to racism and ethnic issues; however, unlike the other criticisms, I do agree in this one with the author.
Although, this chapter may be filled with hints of the perspective that Vonnegut has about society, which in fact may be insulting to many (reason why they banned this book in many schools from the U.S.) it is a very important chapter not only for the facts mentioned in this blog, but because it marks the transition from the prison, to the famous Dresden, and the Slaughterhouse - Five for that matter.
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