Chapter 9: Symbol

          The symbol that is my topic of discussion is something that I first read over without giving much thought to it. This symbol is the green coffin-shaped wagon that Billy and other soldiers are riding in, after the war. It appears in the passage, "... Billy closed his eyes, traveled in time to a May afternoon, two days after the end of the Second World War in Europe. Billy and five other Americans prisoners were riding in a coffin-shaped green wagon, which they found abandoned, complete with two horses, in a suburb of Dresden" (Vonnegut 194). When I first read this passage, I did find it very strange that Vonnegut would describe the wagon as being coffin-shaped, but that all I though of it.

           While reading further in the chapter, I started to think of the odd wagon and what was its purpose. Then I realized its meaning. I believe the wagon symbolizes that even though it may seem like a time of happiness, being the victor of war, the survivors of the war still suffered symbolic death. The death of their feeling of living a meaningful life. The death of the innocence of the "babies" that had fought in the war. Billy did not grasp the emptiness of victory in war until he sees the condition of the horses, which are pitiful.

            In conclusion, the green coffin-shaped wagon had a deeper purpose in symbolizing death of the survivors in several ways. Vonnegut, throughout the novel, has been trying to show that war is pointless, and death will be suffered even by the winning side. This green wagon is Vonnegut's way of demonstrating this theme.