"But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 53
So throughout the book, the idea of innocence is prevalent, especially regarding war. Even in the quote above, Billy longs to find innocence in the midst of battle. Earlier in the book, Billy visits his friend whose wife points out some situational irony. She says that when the men go to war, they are only babies themselves; this provokes Billy to name his book The Children's Crusade. I think the irony here is that war is supposed to be a strictly adult topic - we rate our war movies R for violence, we can't join the military until we are legal adults, and we try to instill pacifist (to an extent) ideals in our children. But what I really think is the difference between "child" and "adult" is maturity. It can take a lot to rid people of their naivety, and war is one of those. While the men didn't go in as children, they went in with innocence. When they came out, that was shattered. And even adults preserve innocence well into the latter years of their lives. It reminds me of that poem we read last semester about the people not wanting the details of war - they know that no one should experience that and they don't want to hear about it. War is such a touchy subject because it has the power to turn a child into an adult, no matter his/her age.
No comments:
Post a Comment