Right as the book begins the author makes you question if the narrator is trustworthy or not with the sentence “All this happened, more or less.”(1) Kurt Vonnegut makes this evident because it’s going to be a major recurring theme in the book. It’s this question of trust that makes this book interesting to read because you never really know if he is being serious or not. Like when Billy said he was abducted by the Tralfamadorians no one can really trust him because he can’t prove it at all. His words and thoughts are the only proof, and they are questionable at that. The author wants you to question the narrator’s trust so that the book can retain a sort of nervous insecurity throughout it.
The author leads a reader to ask essential questions about how the main character is trustworthy. “Im proud you were a soldier, Do you know that?”(121) Billy likes this quote because it shows that he was a soldier in the military. It shows thoughts of how and what he likes about him being a soldier. When he was a soldier he was very trust worthy. Trust can make a book be interesting. While he was in WWII and been captured by the Germans then he wasn't going to be trustworthy anymore because no one knew where he was at.“I heard you tell father one time about a German firing squad”. He used this quote because it happened at Tralfamadorian.
“People would be surprised if they knew how much in this world was due to prayers.”(103), Billy uses this to his advantage in the war. Vonnegut uses it as a way to bring up a different direction you could take your thoughts in. How can you take your thoughts in a different direction? Well Vonnegut puts it in there to relate to people that might be religious, and how you might use religion to relate to Billy’s use of it. Even if you aren’t religious, it still makes you think about it, and try and relate it to something in your life. This all relates back to the central question which is trust. Religion is all about trust. Trust is at the center of faith, and that’s what suggests Billy to be a somewhat trustworthy person in this book.
Society as a whole is held together by trusting each other, and the fact that we trust each other to do jobs that we might receive. Weary saying “You shouldn't even be in the Army.”(51) to Billy really shows that he doesn’t trust him with his life, or him with his life. The Army is probably one of the largest separate societies built off of family-like trust with the people around you. Without the element of trust between Weary and Billy, their situation deteriorates which almost gets them both killed at one point. Weary has somewhat of a mental breakdown and attacks Billy, and he wants to make sure Billy gets the message that his useless trust made him to do too. They are later captured. Maybe none of that would've happened if Billy just got ahold of himself and instilled trust in Weary.
An essential question that Kurt Vonnegut leads to the reader is trusting information we are given. He demonstrates this by showing us that the narrator must get information in order to write a story about him being in WWII. This question ties to human nature and society because every day we are given information about a given topic.Sometimes a given topic is outrages and we know that the information is false,but what happens if it sounds true? We would have to question it and use evidence to see if the information we are given is true. In the story we are presented with a story about a man named Billy who goes through WWII, but Billy is not narrating the story, another person is telling the story and we are given very little information about who this mystery person is and if the information he is telling is true.
In Fact the beginning of the story the narrator is saying he wants to tell a story about his experiences, but we soon later find out it is not his story. We find out, but that raises the question why is he telling someone elses story and not his? Was he not really in the war and is trying to make money as he says in the beginning? If he was in the story how would he know what billy is saying word from word and as we know he doesn't really know Billy.
A phrase that always comes up is ”So it goes”. This is used whenever someone is killed or death is mentioned in the book. “So it goes” it shows you don't know for sure if that actually happened, so how can we trust the narrator since he is always saying this? How can we as readers trust him if he doesn't even know himself if that happened? So the question Kurt Vonnegut is asking us or showing is can that we trust information we are given even if it is presented in books or by anyone.
The author leads a reader to ask essential questions about how the main character is trustworthy. “Im proud you were a soldier, Do you know that?”(121) Billy likes this quote because it shows that he was a soldier in the military. It shows thoughts of how and what he likes about him being a soldier. When he was a soldier he was very trust worthy. Trust can make a book be interesting. While he was in WWII and been captured by the Germans then he wasn't going to be trustworthy anymore because no one knew where he was at.“I heard you tell father one time about a German firing squad”. He used this quote because it happened at Tralfamadorian.
“People would be surprised if they knew how much in this world was due to prayers.”(103), Billy uses this to his advantage in the war. Vonnegut uses it as a way to bring up a different direction you could take your thoughts in. How can you take your thoughts in a different direction? Well Vonnegut puts it in there to relate to people that might be religious, and how you might use religion to relate to Billy’s use of it. Even if you aren’t religious, it still makes you think about it, and try and relate it to something in your life. This all relates back to the central question which is trust. Religion is all about trust. Trust is at the center of faith, and that’s what suggests Billy to be a somewhat trustworthy person in this book.
Society as a whole is held together by trusting each other, and the fact that we trust each other to do jobs that we might receive. Weary saying “You shouldn't even be in the Army.”(51) to Billy really shows that he doesn’t trust him with his life, or him with his life. The Army is probably one of the largest separate societies built off of family-like trust with the people around you. Without the element of trust between Weary and Billy, their situation deteriorates which almost gets them both killed at one point. Weary has somewhat of a mental breakdown and attacks Billy, and he wants to make sure Billy gets the message that his useless trust made him to do too. They are later captured. Maybe none of that would've happened if Billy just got ahold of himself and instilled trust in Weary.
An essential question that Kurt Vonnegut leads to the reader is trusting information we are given. He demonstrates this by showing us that the narrator must get information in order to write a story about him being in WWII. This question ties to human nature and society because every day we are given information about a given topic.Sometimes a given topic is outrages and we know that the information is false,but what happens if it sounds true? We would have to question it and use evidence to see if the information we are given is true. In the story we are presented with a story about a man named Billy who goes through WWII, but Billy is not narrating the story, another person is telling the story and we are given very little information about who this mystery person is and if the information he is telling is true.
In Fact the beginning of the story the narrator is saying he wants to tell a story about his experiences, but we soon later find out it is not his story. We find out, but that raises the question why is he telling someone elses story and not his? Was he not really in the war and is trying to make money as he says in the beginning? If he was in the story how would he know what billy is saying word from word and as we know he doesn't really know Billy.
A phrase that always comes up is ”So it goes”. This is used whenever someone is killed or death is mentioned in the book. “So it goes” it shows you don't know for sure if that actually happened, so how can we trust the narrator since he is always saying this? How can we as readers trust him if he doesn't even know himself if that happened? So the question Kurt Vonnegut is asking us or showing is can that we trust information we are given even if it is presented in books or by anyone.