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?