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Billy Murray: The Denver Nightingale

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No knows exactly how he received the nickname The Denver Nightingale. Many say that the name was assigned to him by singer, pioneer, recording artist Samuel Holland Rous, but one thing that is certain is that he embraced the nickname like no other. Billy Murray was born by the name William Thomas Murray on May 25, 1877. By the time that Murray passed away at age 77 on August 17, 1954, he would go on to become one of the most popular singers in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. Murray was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Irish parents Patrick and Julia Murray in County Kerry, Ireland. His parents would later move to the United States and raise him in Denver Colorado around the early 1880s. Murray became fascinated …show more content…

In the song lyrics such as “They were the best pals that I ever had I never thought that I'd want them so bad Gee but I'd give the world to see That old gang of mine” suggest that Billy should be missing and longing for the friendship that he had with his comrades but instead Billy doesn't like to mention the war because he didn't have a “gang” to miss. Billy didn't have a “gang” when the war was going on and he doesn't have a gang in the present because he's not close to his friends or his family members. Vonnegut writes his novel in this manner in order to depict the imbalance of war and comradery as part of his anti-war …show more content…

In chapter 5 of Slaughterhouse-Five Valencia mentions to Billy that she will lose weight for him but Billy lies to her by replying “I like you just the way you are” (Vonnegut, 120). Billy is lying to his wife when he knows that in the back of his head he was thinking that it was going to be bearable just for a while now. The couple despite being married just don't have the kind of relationship that a married couple should have. Although Valencia dearly loves Billy, Billy doesn't have that show that same love towards her. Their relationship is very imbalance. Billy is to blame for that. In chapter 5 of the novel, Billy recalls his wedding night with Valencia after they got done making love Valencia asks Billy about war. Reluctant to talk Billy gets up and goes to the bathroom and finds himself living in the past once again. The slightest mention of war and Billy immediately cringes and checks himself out of reality. As an anti-war novel maybe war is to blame for the imbalance relationship that Billy has with his wife and I will explain more of that in a

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Before the war had started his brother had introduced him to the cassette tapes and he explained how much he cared for them by saying “I loved the dance and particularly enjoyed the lyrics… they were poetic and it improved my vocabulary”(Beah 6). Rap music has affected his psychological state of mind and throughout any point in time, he was feeling emotion. Beah and his brother went on a trip to see their grandmother and mother which was a total of sixteen miles. When they arrived with their grandmother, she made them some food and took care of them. During the time of the war, Beah reflected on his grandmother and her home a lot to try and unfocus on all of the blood and dead bodies he had witnessed back in his hometown.

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He brings his experience from the bombing of Dresden and recalls his encounters during the tragedy. Through the subject of Billy, he describes the aftermath of man’s destructive power through the bombing, “It looked like Dresden after it was fire-bombed-like the surface of the moon” (). From this quote, he paints a true sight of war where nothing is left but dust. He relates this event to emphasize the fact that war is a place of sadness and despair and from Billy’s viewpoint he observes the hurtfulness and all the destructiveness of the world when the city of Dresden gets

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Billy goes through similar experiences that Vonnegut did such as being in war, being overworked in a concentration camp, and being in the middle of the Firebombing of Dresden. Billy had a peaceful life in Ilium New York until he is drafted into war. Even in war, Billy learned how to stay peaceful. Like Vonnegut, Billy never carried a gun and almost froze in the cold climate. At the Battle of the Bulge, Billy and three others were captured and brought to concentration camps.

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Soldiers were not viewed as brave men risking their lives, and the war was seen as an unnecessary event. This type of mentality is seen in the novel with the perceptions of the soldiers. The narrator expresses the view of the time period when he states, “They were soldiers’ coats. Billy was the only one who had a coat from a dead civilian” (82). The meaning behind this is very crucial because it establishes a definite division between soldiers and civilians.

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The book doesn’t overtly state Billy’s condition, however, it is only amplified as a result of the book’s achronological structure. In showing a nonsequential unfolding of events, Vonnegut wishes to unmoor the reader from their preconceived notions just as Billy is unmoored from time and he makes the effect of how war trauma affects an individual’s psyche quite clear through Billy’s example. It is through the book’s structure that one can see Billy’s disheveled state after the war. Him coming unstuck in time is a human attempt to rewrite the atrocities he wishes to unsee, and allows a portrayal of war far less glorified, and more real that the “realist narratives” Rigney speaks of. While the random arrival of Tralfamadorians seems as unrealistic as can be, they are essentially a representation of the Germans, and Vonnegut trying to right the wrongs they had committed against him within his own mind.

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