Comparing Jesus and Billy

In Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim is portrayed to be the type of “man” that rarely sheds a tear. Most wars have the opposite effect on people, but not Billy. “Crying doesn’t indicate that you’re weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you’re alive. I don’t think Billy would have agreed with this quote because he didn’t feel the need to cry very often. His response when people died were so it goes. A time in which I thought he would cry was when his wife died, but he didn’t even then. When she died, he was pretty much a vegetable in the hospital. This could have affected the way he felt toward the situation. Throughout the book, Billy had not cried once until he came upon the two horse pitiers. On page 252 it says, “Billy asked them in English what it was they wanted, and they at once scolded him…When Billy saw the condition of his means of transportation, he burst into tears. He hadn’t cried about anything else in the war.” This statement helps explain that Billy doesn’t believe in crying because it doesn’t help the situation. In his case, he could have taken the side of the Tralfamadorians in realizing that everyone dies in some point in time. In the stanza of “Away in a Manger” when it says, “The Baby awakes. But the little Lord Jesus No crying he makes,” it is not often that babies do not cry when they are woken up. Billy and Jesus can be compared to each other because they both experience difficulties and reasons that one would cry. Billy goes through the war losing people all around him and seeing cruelty. Jesus, even as a baby, did not cry when he was awakened. When Jesus was crucified, he did not cry. I am sure he wanted to, and there is not a single person in this world that couldn’t have held it within them. Billy and Jesus show a similar characteristic of strength. They both endured some very painful things such as death and dying in which many people cry. This is not saying that they both never cried because they did. Billy cried because the condition of the horses, and he also wept. Vonnegut says, “Later on, as a middle-aged optometrist, he would weep quietly and privately sometimes, but never make loud boohooing noises.” The stanza of “Away in a Manger,” says, “No crying he makes.” John 11:34-35 reads, “Master, come and see, they said. Now Jesus wept.” Jesus wept when Mary and the Jews came weeping to him over the death of Mary’s brother Lazarus. He also wept when he approached the city of Jerusalem in Luke 19:41. They both wept over the condition of someone or something besides themselves. I think this shows that Billy Pilgrim and Jesus didn’t cry often. When they did, they wept quietly. Jesus and Billy demonstrate that there is really no need in crying; however, there is need for weeping.

Callie Holloway