Chapter 9-Imagery

When Billy's wife Valencia learned that Billy had been in a plane crash she was hysterical and caused a wreck of her own by slamming on her brakes of the interstate. The Mercedes that slammed into the back of her Cadillac El Dorado Coupe de Ville incurred little damage except for a shattered headlight, however, Valencia's Cadillac was destroyed. Vonnegut says "The rear end of the Cadillac were a body-and-fender man's wet dream. The trunk and fenders were collapsed. The gaping trunk looked like the mouth of a village idiot explaining that he did not know anything about anything. The fenders shrugged. The bumper was at a high port arms. The back window was veined with cracks. The exhaust system rested on the pavement." Vonnegut's use of imagery in describing Valencia's car creates a vivid image of what the back of Valencia's destroyed car looked like. Without the use of this viid imagery I probably would have thought that the cars were just in a fender-bender but the Cadillac was actually probably totaled.