If you have ever read the novel Slaughterhouse Five, you might be left asking yourself, who really is Pilgrim? Although he is the main character from the novel, there are comparisons in the novel that describe him as being another person. The most interesting comparison may be that of a character out of Kilgore Trout's novels. There are several of his stories that are described that are extremely similar to pits and pieces of Billy's life. This leads to the question of, is Billy Pilgrim just a character from a Kilgore Trout novel? This essay will give specifics that might just help prove that Billy is this person. .
The first comparison that can be drawn from the novel falls on page 21. On this page is the biblical reference about Sodom and Gomorrah. It discusses how the Heavens above rained fire and brimstone and the people and places below. This is exactly what the destruction of Dresden was; fire and brimstone being dropped from the Heavens, or just U.S. and British planes. After the passage, Vonnegut writes, AThose were vile people in both those cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them.@ A quote from Ira C. Eaker on page 187 goes on to say, AI deeply regret that U.S. and British bombers killed 135,000 people on the attack of Dresden, but I remember who started the last war and I regret even more the loss of more than 5,000,000 Allied lives in the necessary effort to completely defeat and utterly destroy Nazism.@ The comparison in these two passages from the book, also highlight the similarities between Sodom and Gomorrah, and Dresden. They show that they were both necessary to completely eliminate any evil in the city. This is not where the comparison of Billy comes in to play though. What is not said in the passage on page 21 is that Lott=s wife is left alive, and told never to look back where all the destruction had occurred. What is not said in the quote from Eaker, is that Billy too was a survivor from the biblical proportion attacks that he witnessed.
