Is War Really Heroic?

As I read this book I had forgotten that it was supposed to be an anti-war book. I was paying too much attention to all the time traveling stuff. By reading chapter 8 I remembered that the actual purpose of the book was to talk about war. This chapter shows the horrible state soldiers are in. Not only physically,  but morally as well. “There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”  This book is not the typical war story were everything seems glorious and heroic.  It gives us a little taste of the actual reality of this horrifying act.

Kilgore trout is also a big part of chapter 8.  One of his stories caught my attention and actually made me laugh. It was called “the money tree”.  I think it was a really cool way of explaining human greed.  I don’t think Kilgore is actually real. He is a real character in the book, but I think Billy made him up. He uses Kilgore’s stories to explain his own thoughts or situations.