Every
soldier portrayed in Slaughterhouse-Five
is either incompetent or dead or both. That reinforces the messages that war is
a pointless exercise where children are sent off to get randomly killed, and
makes sure there’s no part for John Wayne. Or it would, if there weren’t a
weird exception: Billy’s son Robert.
The first
time Robert is mentioned is in the initial telling of Billy’s life, which says
that he was a bad kid in high school, but then he joined the Green Berets,
fought in Vietnam, and became “a fine young man” (31). The next time is when
Robert is conceived, and the narration reveals that he will be a bad kid in
high school, but then join the Green Berets and “straighten out” (151). Over
the next few pages, he isn’t even referred to as Robert but as “the Green
Beret.” The most detailed profile comes when Robert visits Billy at the
hospital, when he is wearing the Green Beret uniform and is decorated with “a
Purple Heart and a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with two clusters” (242). It
also dutifully mentions that he was a bad kid in high school, but he
straightened out when he joined the Green Berets.
Every time
his name comes up, he is identified as a Green Beret who was a bad kid in high
school but now he’s shaped up. He is the epitome of a military success story,
as shown by his large collection of medals. He is a John Wayne character. What
happened to there not being any of those?
The only
thing about Robert that makes him not as John Wayne is how shallow his
character is. We know three things about him: He dropped out of high school, he
joined the Green Berets, and that he turned out to be a great person. There are
a couple of extra details, but they all fall into one of those categories. And
that’s it. We don’t know what kinds of books he reads, what hobbies he has, how
tall he is (although he does have short, blond hair), or anything else that
would make him a person. More words go to describing what he wears than who he
is.
The most
important thing about Robert is that he’s a Green Beret. That, presumably, is
not how he would like to be thought of. But that’s how Americans view military
veterans as a whole. Maybe that’s Vonnegut’s point: Join the military if you
want, but then the only thing people will know about you is that your job is to
kill other people.
I like this post. It's true that often veterans are just thought of as veterans and soldiers are just thought of as soldiers. Also, I think that not explaining him as much sort of makes sense because the focus of the novel is on those not fit to fight but who were forced to anyway. I also think that maybe Robert saw Billy as someone courageous who fought in the war, and so maybe he wanted to be like his dad, but we know that war wasn't fun for Billy.
ReplyDeleteActually, Robert can't be John Wayne, because Wayne has brown hair, not blonde hair. Ignoring that, I agree that the whole point of Robert as a character is that he is the only part for Frank Sinatra (although his hair too would have to be died), and he has no personality, no real description, and no personal details. He is the only type character that could be a war hero: one whose life is so shallow that it isn't even there.
ReplyDeleteI think that the last point is by far the most important. I found it surprising that Robert seemed like a success story, but you have me rethinking if that really is the case. Thanks for making me think, and for your help understanding Robert as a character.
ReplyDeleteNice post! When we had the discussion in class about how Vonnegut did not write Billy or any other characters in the John Wayne mold, I never thought about Robert. The argument you make for Robert being the stereotypical Hollywood good guy was clear and very valid. I think shallowness could also be attributed to those kinds of characters though.
ReplyDeleteThe only moment in the novel with Robert that doesn't neatly fit into the "bad kid/reformed Green Beret" narrative might be that weird bit where Billy walks in on him in the bathroom sitting in the dark, with his electric guitar on his lap. I suppose the guitar might associate him with teenage rebellion or rock-n-roll or something, but it isn't obviously a "bad kid" moment. I'm not sure what kind of moment it is, apart from being weirdly funny.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right--Robert Pilgrim is a conspicuous exception to all the other soldiers depicted in the novel. Among other things, this (along with Billy's general support of the war in Vietnam) serves to distance Billy from Vonnegut himself: in chapter 1, we're told that "Vonnegut" has "instructed his sons never to take part in massacres"; as a Green Beret in Vietnam, Robert has very likely taken part in massacres. The mere fact that Billy doesn't seem to see any connection between his own wartime experience and his son's is significant--one more way that Billy is so detached from his postwar life in Ilium.