"You needn't worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 145
Ooohh.... this is awkward. We are dealing with some major dramatic irony in this situation here. Both the reader and Billy Pilgrim know that Dresden is bombed (that's where a lot of Billy's mental instability originates), but the other soldiers don't know. This creates suspense for the reader throughout the rest of the book, especially at the end when Dresden actually is bombed. Actually, I thought the bombing was somewhat anti-climactic, but that's besides the point. This scene kind of gives the reader a sense of how Billy feels throughout his life - he knows just about everything that's going to happen, and he just has to sit and listen to other people's speculations and comments even if they are completely wrong. Like this one. So we get to empathize with Billy a bit more and understand his helpless condition - we sort of watch his life play out along with him.
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