What person or group represents society in Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut?

Question

I need help.

:)

Answer 1

Your interesting question brings a fragmented, almost multiple-choice answer from me. Fragmented in the sense that in "Slaughterhouse Five", as in many of his novels, Kurt Vonnegut Jr presents us with characters and organizations that can easily be viewed as 'emblematic' or representational of the myriad divisions within the Human Family--due to race, religion, point of origin, economic class, etc. We can see, in "Slaughterhouse Five" as well as other Vonnegut novels, relflections of ourselves in Kilgore Trout and Edgar Derby and Montana Wildhack; mirrors of our societal granafalloons in the US Army, the RAMJAC Corporation, the optomitrists collective.  Eye have read "Slaughterhouse Five" many times, but not since my brain injury in 2004. There is not a copy of the book nearby, so it is possible that I may mangle some names or leave out persons or groups altogether due to some unfortunate cerebral scrambling, but here goes:

First, one should consider that Billy Pilgrim is us, all of us. Or at least the good we walk amongst. We move through time and space in a hopeful bewilderment, wanting little more than our families, our security, and our trivial, personal pursuits. We are the enemy of no one. Billy Pilgrim never wanted to go and kill strangers--therefore, he becomes the out-of-sync clown--silver boots and a ridiculous coat. He certainly accepts that he has come unstuck in time; his problem is that all around him see him as a nutcase. His glory is his own acceptance of his, and all of our, place in the Universe. So it goes.

Paul Lazzaro--The anti-Billy Pilgrim, cold and sadistic. Lazzaro is the foil for all that is wrong with the world--the meanness and greed, the self-important self-righteousness that plunges us all into war in the first place. Look at Humanity as a faceted jewel--there is no simple summation for the totality of 'us'--we are good or bad, selfish or not, tolerant or bigoted--the same beautiful gem that gives us Gandhi and Frida Kahlo gives us Ann Coulter and Adolph Hitler--this is what Eye mean by classifying my answer to you as being fragmented--in my opinion, Vonnegut uses his characters as shards of a shattered mirror held to all our faces--pray that you do not see yourself in Paul Lazzaro.

Edgar Derby--is a father for us all--kind, understanding, educated-- in short, Derby is principled and virtuous. It is in his nature to take the fledgling Billy under his wing. Derby is the wisdom of time.

Howard Campbell (isn't that his name?)--A most interesting character more closely observed in the novel, "Mother Night". Kurt Vonnegut was both keenly aware and "human" enough to see through the veneer of "liberty" and "goodness" with which the White Estates of America disguises itself and cut deep into the capitalist, racist, and classist heart of our scary nation. By cloaking Campbell in a comic n**i/Red, White, and Boo composit uniform, Vonnegut shows us simple humans to be the victims of a charade parade---what is the great and defining difference between fascist Germany and the good ol' USA? What differential can be drawn between the Auschwitz body piles and the gleeful eyes of white families--children TOO!!--gazing at the charred corpse of a black man hanging from an American tree? Campbell is the totality of the evilness of such abstract ideas as 'nations'---hey, we ARE all in this together--there is no real difference between a cocktail waitress in London, a bowling parolee in Buffalo, and a haberdasher in Tehran. Howard Campbell is the embodiment of the "Them" and "They" that rule our lives.

The collection of Illium-area optometrists may be viewed as a sort of convivial union of like-minded souls, neither neccesarialy good or bad, but simply an organization whose aim is the betterment of their own lives through helping the world to see. These men are the Everday Everyones, the livers of lives of quiet desperation. Us.

The Army, or militarism in general--Representing, like Campbell, the evil of mankind, but as a group of anonymous and faceless killers, led to believe in their leaders' Great Purpose. Unequivical and unquestioning. The depersonalization of human beings placed in position of paid hitmen, not unlike the troops now in Iraq. Taught lies and hatred to better be placed in position to orchestrate the machinations of malevolence the drive our world.

Man, now I am getting tired, so I gotta go. I am sure that I have neglectred important parts of the book, but Eye hope this helps.

ADDITION-when rereading this Eye see that a clearer distinction must be made between Paul Lazzaro and Howard Campbell. As the cross-pollenization of Nazism and Amerika's home-grown hatefulness, Campbell is the distant manifestation of Bad, his evil at a remove from our everyday consciousness and our ability to react to or inform or change his big giant "Them". Lazzaro, on the other hand, is the localization, or personalization of Bad. Lazzaro is our mean neighbor kid, our unwaveringly abusive boss. Lazzaro gives us the immediate and close at hand Evil, but an evil that is extinguishible because it is within reach. Campbell, on the other hand, represents the overwhelming and unapproachable Evil--like Blackwater or the Green Berets or the SS--faceless and unwavering.

Answer 2

2 points!

Answer 3

Hmm, I would say Billy's daughter.  She looks down on Billy and has conflicting views about him.  Good luck.