Why Money doesn't Grow on Trees...

On page 213, Vonnegut inserts a short dialogue between Trout and the newspaper girl during a meeting; this passage is used to convey Vonnegut’s most basic thoughts about war. The girl and Trout are having what seems like a meaningless conversation with each other. The girl asks Trout if she wins the competition, if she could bring along her sister to “Martha’s Vineyard”. He quickly responded with “Hell No, you think money grows on trees?” Billy explains to the reader the irony of that statement, as Trout had written a book about a tree that did actually grow money. Its leaves were “twenty dollar bills”, its flowers were “government bonds”, and its fruit was “diamonds”. In the book, Trout dictates that constant fighting occurs at the base of the tree; this results in the deaths of all who attempt to get near the tree. The remains of these attempts in turn rot in order to fertilize the tree. This is where Vonnegut’s true opinion on war can be applied. He makes a parallel between the tree in Trout’s book and the nature of mankind at war. Vonnegut hints this parallel on the previous page when talking about how familiar Trout looks to Billy. He even says Billy thinks he looks like a “prisoner of war”. The tree depicted in the book shows the irrational actions of humans when greed is involved. It is implied that not very many people get to reap the benefits of this magical tree, because they are too busy killing each other and fertilizing the tree. Rather than work together and have mutual gain from it, greed sets in and leads to the deaths of all the people going to the tree. This is how Vonnegut feels about war; people’s greed ends in countless deaths for no apparent reason. Instead of coexisting peacefully and having a successful planet, humans deem it necessary to kill each other mindlessly. On the same token these people are going to their deaths at the base of this tree all because of the rotten nature of mankind. Vonnegut makes a great parallel between Trout’s book and his opinions. He shows the intentions of the novel in a brilliant way in just a short passage.