Matthew Peeler's Blog

When we typically think about toughness, we tend to picture someone big and bad that can take anybody. A prime example of someone who is tough in my opinion is Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is big, he is bad, and he can take anybody.
Kurt Vonnegut however takes a different approach to toughness in my opinion. He states that, ”World War Two had certainly made everybody very tough.” Vonnegut proceeds to tell about his boss at General Electric where he works as a public relations man. He says that his boss was one of the toughest men he had ever met and he often gave Vonnegut sneering remarks asking him why he hadn’t become an officer, “as though I’d done something wrong,” Vonnegut states. This line is what makes me think that Vonnegut views toughness as something that is not necessarily a good thing. It seems that his attitude towards his “tough” boss is an attitude that despises toughness. Vonnegut did nothing wrong in his eyes and doesn’t seem to understand why his boss should view himself as tough. Vonnegut states that he and his wife were “scrawny” people and that many of their friends were people of the same stature. It was these people that Vonnegut seemed to have the most respect for and enjoyed being around the most. He said that they were the kindest and funniest people. According to him they were the people who really hated the war, the ones that had really fought. When I tie this line into the line about Vonnegut’s boss poking at him for not being an officer, it comes across to me that Vonnegut views being tough as being nothing. He believes that his boss, as an officer, did not go through the trials and tribulations that he and his fellow fighters did. According to Vonnegut, being highly ranked is not what makes you tough. It is the grueling grind of fighting in war that makes you tough and that if you have not been in a war situation then it is much more difficult to call yourself tough.