Theme Of Responsibility In Pilgrim's Slaughterhouse-Five

400 Words2 Pages
Hubert Selby Jr. once said, "Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.” Billy Pilgrim learns this all too soon. There are a few particular scenes in Slaughterhouse-Five that portray the toll responsibility takes on Pilgrim at the end of the war. Towards the end of the book, after Dresden was bombed, we find Pilgrim quietly enjoying a ride back to the bombed city to collect any ruins. Once they stop, Pilgrim is scolded harshly for the condition of the horses pulling his coffin shaped carriage. Once he is reprimanded, then and only then, Pilgrim breaks down into tears. His first time crying real tears since the war. So why, after all his time spent in the war, does