Money Tree

I think that the excerpt in the novel about the money tree is meant to invoke deep thoughts in Vonnegut's readers. I think that the money tree itself is a form of temptation to which most people would fall. This temptation leads to the death of many people in the story, so it goes. I think that the money tree is a symbol of a cause. I think the symbol of a cause relates to the cause of fighting that Billy Pilgrim goes through as a soldier.
Many people die as a result of cause and the effects of war on this world. Though the trees leaves are twenty dollar bills, its fruit is diamonds, many people who try to come to this tree end up fighting for no apparent reasons. Then, their fighting leads to the death of many people. These dead bodies that are at the base of the tree fertilize it, allowing the tree to put forth more leaves of twenty dollar bills, and more fruit of diamonds.
I think the symbol of the tree was included in Vonnegut's novel to show his perspective on war. As an anti-war novel, the symbol of the tree that everyone wants to get to, leads to death and destruction. We later find that if we only would wait, that the tree would produce much good if we chose to fertilize it and help it to grow and produce, instead of killing each other over the goods it has to offer. I think that Vonnegut strives to show his readers that if we could only try to help situations that might end in war first, without bombing and causing the deaths of millions of people, that we could all learn to live together peacefully, and all of us would gain from the experiences. If the people in the tree story would have worked together to supply the tree with adequate needs, they would have all been able to be happy in the end without the needless death and destruction that is caused by greed and misunderstandings.