Vonnegut's pain and suffering from witnessing the slaughter of thousands, is explained through the main character, Billy Pilgrim. In fact, the the most substantial similarity between Vonnegut and Pilgrim is their inability to cope with the bombing. There is no doubt an emotional scarring took place when Vonnegut exited the slaughterhouse, only to lay his eyes upon the incinerated corpses of over 100,000 civilians. .
Vonnegut's mirror of himself, Billy, grows up and is drafted into the army. He is sent off to fight a war overseas in Europe. Like many other young men of the time, he was not prepared to fight a war, and wasn't capable of firing a weapon or even wearing the proper uniform. Soon after beginning the fight in Europe, he is captured in the Battle of the Bulge, parallel to Vonnegut, "We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood. [.] You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and youll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra or John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war loving, dirty old men." Growing up to become an optometrist, Billy was in no way fit to become a soldier, but he was drafted. In fact, Billy was a joke of a soldier with an improperly-fitting uniform and no weapons or fighting skills. The soldiers sent off to the war did not understand the war they were truly fighting, or the reason why they were going to die. Innocent young men just coming into adulthood, wouldn't get to finish their lives because they were going to die for their country. The destructiveness of war took the lives of many Americans just like Billy. Many died for a cause they didn't truly understand. .
Fighting for his country, Billy is captured and sent to a POW camp in Dresden. The innocent citizens of Dresden are firebombed by the Allies as a casualty of war. In Dresden, Billy survives the bombing locked in a meat locker while listening to the explosions and giant footsteps above him, "They were all being killed with their families.
