Unmasking Kurt Vonnegut

After creating an appendix for Slaughterhouse-Five in class, I have found more correlations between Vonnegut himself and aspects or characters in his novel. “Oz. That was I. That was me.” We know that Vonnegut went to Slaughterhouse-Five, that he witnessed the bombing of Dresden. When the American soldier says “Oz”, it appears insignificant. However, because it is followed by a note from the narrator (who could be Vonnegut himself) the setting changes. It is also important to point out that the American soldier who said that, gets in the same boxcar that Bill is in, headed for Dresden.

While reading the remainder of Chapter six, I couldn’t really concentrate. I understood the obvious: Lazzaro will have Billy killed, they arrive at last to Slaughterhouse-Five, and the British say that if you don’t have a proper hygiene routine you will die. But after realizing the importance of the quote I mentioned above, all the rest seemed insignificant. Moreover, the entire storyline felt like it was just a means to unmask Vonnegut’s identity in the book.

In my reading blog response to Chapter five, I analyzed the meaning of the maxim: “That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.” At the time it seemed important, it represented a glimmer of hope in the novel. But that by itself is not sufficient evidence to say that Vonnegut is a character in the story. Even if you take that aphorism and the excerpt from this chapter, their similarity seems to eradicate the validity of the argument I am trying to make. What makes Slaughterhouse-Five the masterpiece that it is turning out to be is the hidden messages in the text. They are insignificant for the plot, but add an infinite amount of complexity to the discussion about Vonnegut’s role in the novel.

I found that Diego Rodriguez, a classmate of mine, discussed this topic in his blog entry, Mustard Gas and Roses. “Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath-mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up.” Diego compared this axiom with a part from Chapter 1, where Vonnegut says that he got drunk and called war friends: he could smell his breath of Mustard Gas and Roses. Diego says that he can’t decide on one interpretation of the aphorisms' correlation, so he gives us several options. When I originally read this blog post, I thought that most of what he said made sense, I understood why he couldn’t settle on only one. But now, after reading two more chapters, I have come to believe that none of the interpretations he mentioned are the appropriate one! Vonnegut is a character in his own novel. The fact that he is an American soldier, who is going to Slaughterhouse-Five, and that will probably be with Billy during the time period that Vonnegut was trying to find information about later, leads to one solid conclusion. Vonnegut is that American soldier, and Vonnegut called Billy the night that the Trafalmadorians took him! Vonnegut mentions that he will not use real names in his novel. Billy could be a fake name for one of his war comrades. Everything seems to be leading the reader to a point where, in some part in the book, Billy and that American soldier (Vonnegut) will interact further. But a new question has risen: Will Vonnegut formally identify himself as that “insignificant” soldier?