Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Chapter 10-Motif
When Billy Pilgrim begins to work in a corpse mine Vonnegut tells us that "There were hundreds of corpse mines operating by and by. They didn't smell bad at first, were wax museums. But then the bodies rotted and liquefied, and the stink was like mustard gas and roses." Vonnegut used the motif of "mustard gas and roses" once alreaady earlier in the novel when his describing what his breath is like when he has been drinking. By using this motif in both the first and the last chapter of the novel, Vonnegut creates an otherwise unseen connection between Billy Pilgrim and himself.
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Throughout the novel, the recurring use of the smell "mustard gas and roses" is evident, but Austin makes a connection that I had not yet realized. In the first chapter when Vonnegut recants stories of his own endeavors prior to finalizing his anti-war book, he uses the motif to describe himself after he does some drinking. Later in the book, Vonnegut describes certain things such as the decomposing bodies with the same motif but from Billy's perspective, thus drawing a connection between the two men.
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