Literary LuminarySlaughterHouse-Five

Chapter 6&7Iris German

Passage 1- Pg 139

Context- Paul Lazzaro is explaining in this passage how a dog bit him and he got revenge back at the dog by putting spring out of a clock in his steak.

Passage-“Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is” said Lazzaro, “its revenge”.

INTERPRETATION

I think Paul has many problems to deal with and he thinks the best thing in life is revenge because hes at war now getting revenge and to him that’s the best thing.

Passage 2- Pg 145

Context: In this qoute its explaining how an Englishman said that appearance means everything to survive.

Passage: “If you stop taking pride in your appearance, you will very soon die”. He said that he had seen several men die in the following way: “They ceased to shave or wash, then ceased to get out of bed, then ceased to talk, then died. There is this much to be said for it: It is evidently a very easy and painless way to go”. So it goes.

Interpretation:

This Englishman didn’t know what he was talking about because in order to survive in a war appearance doesn’t come in as a major. Courage and safety is what can get you through war not how you look.

Passage 3- Pg 156

Context: It was when the quartet was singing a song and they suddenly crash.

Passage: The barbershop quartet on the airplane was singing “wait till the sun shines, Nelly”, when the plane smacked into the top of SugarBush mountain in Vermont.Everybody was killed but Billy and the co-pilot.So it goes.

Interpretation:

This is an ironic situation because while he is singing “wait till the sun shines” and they are going over a mountain and they crash its ironic because in order to see the sun shine its from a mountain up high.

Passage 4- Pg 149

Context: This passage is describing the soldiers to us in the war.

Passage: “They were boys and men past middle age…A grandfather and grandson were in the squad. The grandfather an architect….They knew what sick foolish soldiers they themselves appeared to be. One of them actually had an artificial leg, and carried not only a loaded rifle but a cane”.

Interpretation:

This qoute is making the soldiers seem powerless and weak and not describing and showing us how soldiers really are.