Vonnegut-Response to Question 13-Billy's happiest moment, or realization?

Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut uses strange events to catch reader’s attention and help the reader become more insightful to the underlying meaning of the text. On pages 250, and 251, is an example of the way a particular passage reveals Vonnegut’s view that he has cleverly been developing throughout the entire text. It is within two pages that he provides evidence for the readers to use in conclusion to the way Vonnegut feels about typical American’s behavior. As Vonnegut described Billy’s happiest moment- a nap in the sun after the war- Billy wakes up to a couple speaking to horses. After reading the pages that follow I was immediately able to understand why this could be Billy’s happiest moment. The illustration of a nap after the war, and waking up in the sun to what the couple expresses to him could be interpreted as symbolizing the way many Americans could have “woken up to the sun” or in other words the way the may have been shown the “light” in how insensitive Americans’ conduct had become. On page 250, “Billy opened his eyes.” Here is where the reader can anticipate a major idea is about to be revealed. Further in the text on page 251, “They were noticing what the Americans had not noticed—that the horses’ mouths were bleeding, gashed by bits…the horses were insane with thirst. The Americans had treated their form of transportation as though it were no more sensitive than a six-cylinder Chevrolet.” At this point the reader has most likely interpreted one very clear message Vonnegut is demonstrating. The way that Americans tend to treat things—as useful as they are to them in that moment, and as for the rest of time and purpose, and after they have thoroughly used it, there in no longer a need to be concerned with condition. Here the soldiers were more concerned with stealing remains from people who had been killed by tragedy and using animals to transport them in the process. The major issue is the way they are treating everything at this point, a lack of concern or care, there is no humanity remaining within their beings. It took the couple, as outsiders, to make Billy aware of just how horrific their actions resulted. When Billy’s reaction is described on page 252, “When Billy saw the condition of his means of transportation, he burst into tears. He hadn’t cried about anything else in war.” There are several things the author could want readers to interpret at this point. One major idea is that this is the first time Billy has been sensitive to something and it brings him to the reality of the devastation. Likewise, in analyzing the previous pages it could show the way Billy is beginning to comprehend how terrible war and destruction has been and it cannot continue to be unnoticed. Possibly the interpretation of the significance in these moments in the relation to the rest of the novel, it is the first time Billy truly realizes the destruction that Americans cause and the way they are also accustom to effortlessly ignoring the consequences. I believe that Vonnegut depicts many dislikable American characters and their behaviors’ in his novel to exemplify the way he feels about Americans, even though he is also American. Once again, unless it is directly affecting our being, it does not matter.