Wounded

Everything that is done leaves its mark on us. Sometimes its rewarding, sometimes deadly. Reminders of our actions in case we come to forget. Stress and anxiety are the handlers of the remembering of the past, which can be useful yet painful. The first chapter of this novel introduces us to the main character, not in name but in how his current daily life is like. He intends to describe what happened in the bombing of Dresden in an anti-war novel, but finds himself caught up in a situation where he doesn't know how or where to begin. He doesn't even remember what it was that he felt during the war. As far as reminiscing with Bernard V. O’Hare goes, all they were able to retrieve from the fading memories were insignificant details of their days in the war. Together they attempt to recapture the full meaning of what happened in Dresden, but most efforts were in vain. The facts were there, hidden and kept secret by the Air Force, and so were the emotions, but instead these were hidden from them by sympathetic memory. The visit ends, and it surprises me, for I thought it would be of great importance. It is not, it is just a way of explaining how the past was blurry to them and how difficult it would be to finish such a book. Billy Pilgrim is a man undecided on what author or idea to believe when it came to time and war. Miss Ostrovsky is obsessed with time and believes things such as "truth is death", while Theodore Roethke simply looks forward without knowing what is coming. The Gildeon Bible provides Billy with tales of destruction and human flaws, such as that of Lot's wife. Inspired by this he decides that "people aren't supposed to look back"and so as soon as he finishes the book, he vows that he will never again do so. He does not believe his novel to be great, for like Seymour told him: "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre".