Entry #7: A Mood

CHAPTER 4:

POWs would arrive at prisons in boxcars such as these.

     Billy Pilgrim finds himself back as a prisoner of the Germans in World War II.  He and the other prisoners from his boxcar, finally arrived at the prison in which they would be held.  Pilgrim described the atmosphere of the room by saying, "somewhere a dog barked.  With the help of fear and echoes and winter silences, that dog had a voice like a big bronze gong."  His words indicate that the room was in complete silence.  No one spoke because they were to afraid of either the consequences of speaking or because they were contemplating their fate.  Vonnegut's choice of words create a mood of despair and apprehension.

American soldiers being forced to stand under a shower, that they had no control of,  by Germans.

     Vonnegut expands on the mood of Pilgrim's and the other prisoners' of war (POWs) experience by describing, "the naked Americans took their places under many showerheads along a white-tiled wall.  There was no faucets they could control.  They could only wait for whatever was coming." (page 84)  These words show that the POWs had lost control of their fate and were at the complete mercy of the Germans.  The hopelessness and humiliation these once proud soldiers must have felt is even painful for the reader to imagine.  Vonnegut expanded the mood to include not only despair and apprehension, but also embarrassment.  Vonnegut successfully uses these powerful moods in his story to make a lasting impact on the reader and to accurately describe his own experiences.