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The Wretched Figure Of Billy

187 Words1 Pages
The wretched figure of Billy is mentioned several times in the story to enhance the effectiveness of the anti-war figure. There is one paragraph that plays as the repetition to describe the weakness of Billy as well as other American soldiers in the war is, "A German measured Billy's upper right arm with his thumb and forefinger, asked a companion what sort of an army would send a weakling like that to the front. They looked at other American bodies now, pointed out a lot more that were nearly as bad as Billy's (83)." The author intentionally pictured Billy and other Americans as weak and pathetic young boys to question our assumptions about who are actually fighting in these wars. Through portraying Billy as an incapable soldier, Vonnegut
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