Happy Ending?

According to some movies, fairy tales always have a happy ending. Vonnegut states “Billy Pilgrim was Cinderella, and Cinderella was Billy Pilgrim.”(Pg. 145) Why would he compare him to Cinderella, seeing the different circumstances in which they are both living? What message was he trying to send us? Since the moment I read that phrase I was in disagreement with him since they are living in complete different situations. Apparently, Vonnegut was able to see a resemblance between them and this got my thinking about the ending of the book. I already knew that Cinderella was going to have a happy ending, so does this means that the same will happen to Billy?
As I kept on with my reading, I realized that the book wasn’t going to have a good ending since nothing good comes out of a war. War wounds a lot of people and even though time helps them heal, the scars will never disappear.

I was disappointed with the ending of the book. The entire time we were always looking for answers and we were trying to find the lesson that Vonnegut wanted to sent us, but after closing the book I just ended up having even more questions. The last pages describes the death of many of the soldiers, he explains these events in a few words and finishes it with a “so it goes”. Making me believe that so many died that he no longer cared and seeing someone die was as to us seeing a kid playing outside. The last sentence of the book is: “One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, Poo-tee-weet?” (Pg.215) In my opinion I think that he ended up with this sentence so that we can see how non sense the war was. Dresden was so destroyed, that the entire city was quit and they could only hear the surviving birds.

I really enjoyed reading this book because it gave us a different perspective from World War II. It not only describes to us the horrible events that happened during the war, but it also described Billy´s life before and after. This helped us see how the war impacts and changes completely the life of a person. Even though Billy didn’t had the happy ending he would had probably gotten if it wasn’t for the war, he still was a survivor of the war and is probably admired by many.
Vonnegut made me realize and take into account that not many of us appreciate the work that the soldiers in war do. They are putting their lives ahead of the others and they are willing to have a dramatic change in their lives in order for the rest of us to enjoy it.

Interpretation

I agree with Manuela’s blog Meaning, all of the words have the same meaning but we all interpreted them in different ways. Does that mean that we are wrong? No, it just clarifies that we all have different perspectives of the situation. As mentioned in Slaughterhouse Five, Billy believes everything the Tralfamadorians tell him, while Barbara believes that he is insane. Our past is what creates us and with our knowledge, we interpreted each situation differently. Billy’s past is nothing like Barbara’s and this is something one should take into account before judging either of them. Some of us say that we would like to erase our past, but would we be the person we are now a day without our past? Some people might think that the answer for everything is traveling back in time to correct the mistakes, while others prefer to accept it and move on. This is just another example of two different perspectives of moving on.

In life we come across situations where we have to take a decision in order to move on. What might have been the right choice for some, it might have been the incorrect for others. Our decisions shouldn’t be based on others ideologies because we are all unique and we shouldn’t be afraid to stand up against others. As Manuela questioned, why do all of the words have to be interpreted in the same way? Can’t we create our own meaning without being judged by the rest? I believe that different is better, since it has more meaning to go against the crowd than with it.

Looking from the Outside

During and after a war we only talk in plural. On the news and newspaper, the headlines say: Today 300 more soldiers died. The numbers are so big and appear so much that we start forgetting and seeing all of the soldiers as just another one. We don’t realize that each of those soldiers had a family waiting for them and they were putting their lives in front of the others. I don’t believe that this is fair and each soldier must be recognized for its courage and abilities. “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” shows a great example of how the leader’s main goal was to win and if one soldier died there should be another one ready to replace him. He states: “When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.” We can see how useless the soldiers felt in war, if they only knew that if it weren’t for them our countries might be on crisis. On the other hand, when prisoners, they were treated as animals and sometimes even objects. In Slaughterhouse Five they describe how Billy was treated like a dog when he was a captive from the Americans. “Billy was told to hang the tag around his neck along with his American dogtags, which he did.”(Pg.92) Why treat them like animals if they are just like them but with a different ideology? As they suffer and miss their families we are looking from the outside and paying attention to the propagandas. All of the propagandas had a hidden message and they only showed what would work as a favor for them. They will put positive aspects of the war to get the support from the rest of the nation. “They made war look stylish and reasonable, and fun.” (Pg.94) They knew that the only way to captive the attention of the rest was by making war look as something good. Would things might have been different if they hadn’t lie? The lies are meant to be uncovered, so why lie in the first place?
In Colombia there are thousands of soldiers living in the jungle sacrificing their lives for ours. When do we thank them? Do we even think of them and their families? We completely ignore them and we don’t appreciate what they do for our country. So next time we have the opportunity to meet them we should make them feel priceless.