The types of destruction caused by war in
Slaughterhouse-Five are physical and
psychological.
The novel describes the physical toll war
takes. Description of the destruction caused by the bombing of Dresden is explicit in
the novel, as are the haggard states of the suffering soldiers--on both sides. And
humans have no control over whether or not they suffer. Good soldiers die and suffer
the same as poor soldiers. Billy is a terrible soldier, for instance, and suffers
because of it. But he is just as likely to have suffered had he been a good soldier, as
the execution of Edgar Derby demonstrates.
Billy suffers
from more than physical hardship as a result of the war, however. His mind is
fragmented, as the collage-like structure of the narrative reveals. He is passive in
the face of war--how else can one be? He has no control of his fate. The only time he
is active in the novel is when he decides to tell the world about Tralfalmadore, etc.,
near the end of his life. Billy can't face the horrible memories of war, so he escapes
however he can.
After all, what can one do in the face of
human bone meal and corpse mines?
No comments:
Post a Comment