America: Wealth Nation, Poor People - Essay Sample

Introduction

My favourite passage from this book is where the author mentions America. He says, ‘America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. This passage is interesting in the way what the author describes what he thought of the American society back then. Compared to the fact that America went on to become the world superpower, this passage describes a bleak society that seems unrelated and unattached to present society. The author goes on to quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.'

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An aspect of the postmodern world that is evident in the novel is how American society turned out after all. In modern America, capitalism rules. It is almost a crime not to be rich, or at least headed there. The top 1% of American society owns more than half of American wealth. This means that high economic levels of society enjoys the best and most substantial portion of the resources while the lower scrambles for crumbs. The author further writes; ‘It is, in fact, a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you're so smart, why ain't you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.’

One of the most compelling characters in the Slaughterhouse-Five is Valencia Marble Pilgrim, the kind, good-natured, homely wife to Billy Pilgrim. She is a happy, grateful wife, who is loving to her children and her husband. It may be argued that her love for her husband is what ultimately led to her death. Roland Weary, on the other hand, is a proud, boisterous friend of Billy Pilgrim, with whom they served in the army. He is also imaginative, having continually envisioned things happening around him as being as if in a movie. For instance, he has imagined the scouts who accompany him as ‘The Three Musketeers’.

With love she served him

But it was this love that killed her

Yet she still loved him (197)

A vivid setting that I opted to observed was the calm surroundings of Billy, moments before his fatal plane crash. Complete with calming music, to which Billy knew most of the lyrics, this setting signifies the importance of the last dying minutes of a character that had deeply and extensively influenced the entire novel. Interestingly, the background after the crash was described again, further illustrating the importance of the character that had just passed on. He goes; ‘The people who first got to the crash scene young Austrian ski instructors from the famous ski resort below… Billy had a fractured skull, but he was still conscious. He didn’t know where he was. His lips were working, and one of the golliwogs put his ear close to them to hear what might be his dying words.’ (199).

An instance of ‘So it goes’ occurs on the passage; ‘And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.’ It is a phrase that demonstrates Vonnegut’s ability for deep irony, while also occurring everywhere a death event occurs.

A moral, ethnic value that comes out in Slaughterhouse-Five is the value of Peace. Although Vonnegut does not directly call upon his readers to actively maintain Peace, he does covertly and overtly support that war must not be part of the human experience. Through his writing, he urges the involved parties to think seriously about the potential consequences, for both sides, when war erupts. He says; ‘I hope that we’ll meet again in a world of peace and freedom in the taxi cab if the accident will’, and 'But you do have a peaceful planet here." "Today, we do. On other days we have wars as horrible as any you've ever seen or read about. There isn't anything we can do about them, so we don't look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments—like Today at the zoo. Isn't this a nice moment?" "Yes." "That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.'

How historical nations used to engage each other in war, is the same way that they engage in war and conflict Today, only using different weapons. The modern world still experiences waring times, just as they did in Vonnegut’s times, only that Today's threats are data, information and biological weapons. In contrast, the weapons of choice back then were canons and gunpowder.