"All the Real Soldiers are Dead" Analyzed -Siena H

Siena Hoaglund

American Studies 1/2 + 3/4 B

Ivory
12/31/15

"All the Real Soldiers are Dead"

In chapter 7, all of the dehumanizing effects of the war are explained perfectly in one sentence: "All the real soldiers are dead..." (Vonnegut, 159). Not only does this statement show the opinion others had of the American soldiers, but it showed the state in which the soldiers minds would forever be stuck in. 

In the chapter, Billy and Gluck go to the slaughterhouse kitchen, where they meet a war widow. She asks Billy what he was supposed to be. When Billy responded by saying he didn't know, all she could say is "'All the real soldiers are dead...". The narrator agreed with her, stating that "It was true. So it goes." (Vonnegut, 159). 

The statements made by the widow and narrator were examples of how outsiders saw the American prisoners; not as soldiers, but as sad tormented men. Their opinions of them were not ones of respect. The men had lost their strong status as soldiers, and they were now looked at as nothing but people walking around with no life to them. The real soldiers they were before coming to Dresden, were dead, and they would now forever, mentally, feel dead inside. The narrator even brought back their common saying "So it goes.", that is only used to explain when someone has died, to back up the war widow's statement, that the real soldiers were now dead. 

Similar statements like the one made in chapter 7, can be found in the book All Quiet on the Westward Front, where the author frequently explains the dehumanized soldiers in World War I, as animals. The best quote that summarizes the effects of the war was the statement "We have become wild beasts" (Remarque, 113). 

I wonder if the statement made by the war widow will have a lasting effect on Billy. Since he agreed with her, will the statement kick start his depression? As he now accepts that he feels dead inside, and is less than a real solider.

Guest Staring: Kurt Vonnegut? -Siena H

Siena Hoaglund
American Studies 1/2 + 3/4 B
Ivory
12/30/15
Guest Staring: Kurt Vonnegut?

In chapter 5, Kurt Vonnegut, quite literally, guest stars in his own book. He appears when Billy wonders into the latrines, the night after a welcome feast with the Englishmen, to find that the banquet had made all of the American soldiers "...as sick as volcanoes." (Vonnegut, 125). Vonnegut is featured in the chapter in a bizarre way, as he is found wailing as he excretes everything and then, a few moments later, explaining that he just excreted his brains. However, the authors choice to present himself in such an awful situation in his own book, may have had a great meaning behind it.

The author purposely introduces himself  in such a way that it derails his appearance, by saying "An American near Billy wailed that he has excreted everything...That was I. That was me. That was the author of the book." (Vonnegut, 125). Vonnegut describes a sickened man who has had all of his modestly taken away from him, and then makes a point of explaining that he is that man.

This is not the only time authors have incorporated themselves into their stories. In the last book of the Stephen Kings series The Dark Tower the two main characters, Eddie and Jake, cross plains into a duplicate universe in which their lives are in a book. They actually track down the author, King, to see if he can help them fix the tower that holds all the worlds together. King is perceived in the story as a simple man who almost dies by being hit by a van. It may have been King's purpose to incorporate himself in the story this way, to make his readers believe him to be a simple man that can die in the most common of ways, like anyone else.

In Vonnegut's case, it seems as if Vonnegut wants the reader to not perceive him as a strong soldier, or a normal author who decided to write a book about a bombing. He wants the reader to seem him as a sad man, who went through a horrible event, and could be seen at his lowest moments, like any other soldier who experienced the war.

Could it also be possible that this out of ordinary scene introducing Vonnegut, will play a bigger piece in the story later on? Will Vonnegut ever be a part of the story again? In a less sickening way?

Time Travel-Chris Wood

I noticed that in chapter three Billy starts jumping to mostly war scenes but that was the case for chapter two, he was just jumping to random times then. I think that what he does on Tralfamadore will be related to things he went through in the war.

Vonnegut's style- Chris Wood

I think it is very interesting how Kurt explains everything and how he writes the book. When he try's to explain something he writes it like he's actually talking to you. I wonder if he will keep this up throughout the book.

Billy Pilgrim is an Alcoholic- Siena H

Siena Hoaglund
American Studies English
B-Day 1/2 + 3/4
Ivory
12/17/15

"Billy Pilgrim is an Alcoholic"

By the end of chapter 4, it  has become very clear that Billy Pilgrim has a major problem with alcohol. Not only does the narrator talk about him drinking several times, but Billy also refers to the smell of Alcohol on someones breath as "mustard gas and roses". Mustard gas and roses; disgusting but wonderful.

Reinforcements that Billy is an alcoholic is scattered throughout the story. Billy drinks himself drunk so that he can call old friends, he drank while he was a solider, and in chapter 4, Billy sees a simple bottle of champagne and says that the bottle was begging him to drink it. Most importantly though, on the second page of chapter 4, after a drunk person calls Billy by mistake, the book states that "There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath-mustard gas and roses...Billy hung up. There was a soft drink bottle on the windowsill...it contained no nourishment what-soever." (Vonnegut, 73). To the reader, it would seem as though hearing the drunk person on the phone makes Billy want to drink, but not the soda next to him; alcohol. This shows Billy's need for alcohol, because he can't even listen to someone drunk, and not want to be drunk himself. Plus, the soft drink near him is said to have no nourishment to Billy, most likely, because it wont satisfy his need to get drunk.

However, when Billy constantly refers to the smell of someones bad alcohol breath as "mustard gas and roses" is when the narrator really speaks to the reader that Billy is an Alcoholic. Why? Because Billy enjoys the smell of Alcohol, even if its the bad after-smell on someone's breath. When Billy says that the smell is like mustard gas, it shows that he acknowledges that the smell is bad, but when he says that the smell is like roses, is shows that he doesn't care how bad it smells, it still smells wonderful to him, because it smells like alcohol. If Billy really enjoys the smell of alcohol so much that he can look past someone's bad breath to smell it, he has a problem.

Billy probably has a drinking issue because of his time in the war, he tries to drink his memories away. This way of thinking is creatively shown in the song lyrics from Liquor Store Blues, by Bruno Mars. "I'll take one shot for my pain. One drag for my sorrow. Get messed up today, I'll be okay tomorrow."

Of course, I am very against abusive drinking, but it is hard for me to not sympathize with Billy. I wonder if his drinking problem will ever get better, or if he will ever learn to handle his emotional struggles in a better way. Will Billy ever stop smelling the roses?

Kurt Vonnegut's Reaction to Emotional Pain -Siena H

Siena Hoaglund
American Studies English
B-Day 1/2 + 3/4
Ivory
12/14/15

"Kurt Vonnegut's Reaction to Emotional Pain"

In Chapter 3, the author's personal feelings towards pain is easily seen through the time traveling of Billy. Every time Billy is put in a dangerous, painful, or scary situation; he time travels. Almost as a way to avoid the pain that is to come.

When Billy is captured and forced to give his shoes to the Germans, he time travels right after the Americans are brought into a house full of other captives. If this is looked at by the author's point of view, it shows that Vonnegut knew that being captured was a painful memory for him, as he was captured by the Germans once himself. So he avoids the memory by making his main character time travel to an eye exam. Vonnegut avoids many painful memories this way. Billy time travels before Vonnegut can go into detail about when the Germans make the Americans march in the snow, when the captives entered Germany, and when the trains, they are forced into, start moving eastward.

The last sentence of chapter 3 states, "Somewhere in there was Christmas. Billy Pilgrim...fell asleep, and he traveled in time to 1967 again-to the night he was kidnapped by a flying saucer from Tralfamadore." (Vonnegut,71). In my opinion, it would seem as if Vonnegut was pained to think that American soldiers spent their Christmas inside of a train cart. So he decided to write about Billy time traveling to when he is kidnapped to Tralfamadore, instead of going in depth about the pain a American solider, like the character Billy, would feel spending Christmas as one of the captured.

This method of avoiding pain, reminded me of the last chapter of Night by Ellie Wiesel. In the last chapter, Wiesel stops talking about what happens during his time in the Consecration Camp, because of his father's death. Wiesel says that he believed it was because, after his father died, he became very dehumanized. However, I always thought it was because Wiesel didn't want to remember the pain he felt after losing his father.

I am curious to see if this pattern will continue throughout the novel Slaughterhouse Five, and if Vonnegut will ever admit, somehow, that in his book he talks about time travel and aliens, as a way to avoid talking about his pain. Does Vonnegut really avoid certain memories because they make him feel pain, or is there going to be a greater reason for the convenient time traveling, shown later in the book?

Example Posts - Meets and Exceeds

The following are two posts that may serve as models for your own. These posts use The Grapes of Wrath as the considered text, but the requirements are the same. The first is an example of a post that MEETS the standard; the second is an example that EXCEEDS the standard.

Meets:

It became apparent in chapter 5 that the narrative of the Joad family is only one perspective of the struggles people faced in the 1930s. The use of racial slurs and culturally insensitive language reminds us that the Joads, although they are a poor family lacking many basic resources, they do have the privilege of being white. The use of the word "nigger" and the highly insensitive way of speaking about Native Americans remind us that whiteness was a privilege that could elevate the status of even the most desperate farmer.

I wonder how this theme of race and culture will continue to develop over the course of the novel. What will the presence of race and racism continue to teach us about the social fabric of the U.S. in the '30s?

Exceeds:

The description of the land in Chapter 5 tells us a lot about the tensions arising out of the industrialization of farming. The physical connection to the land is broken, and this seems to lead to a bigger gap that transcends the physical.

In chapter 5, we learn that the tractor driver "could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth...Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses" (35, 36).

Humans are being replaced by machines, and these machines will never love and appreciate the land (and what the land provides) as much as the humans who farmed it with their own hands. I am curious to see how this theme continues to play out in the novel - will the divide between the human and the machine continue to grow, and will it cause the farmers' struggle to become increasingly bitter and devastating?

Notes:

• Please consider your grammar and spelling. These posts should be thoughtful and well-crafted. 
• As you can see, the posts need not be long. A few sentences, or a small paragraph or two is sufficient. Remember - quality over quantity! 
• Please title your post purposefully - your title should help give a heads-up about the content of your post.