“On the ninth day, the forty year old hobo died. So it
goes. His last words were, ‘You think this is bad? This ain’t bad.’” (Vonnegut
55). This is a prime example of irony. Although he was about to die, the hobo
still reiterated this line “You think this is bad? This ain’t bad.” The hobo
reveals that he has been in worse conditions, than being locked up in that
train with many other prisoners of war. This is ironic because he was able to
survive the other shoddier conditions but passes away in these conditions. This
also tells us that the hobo has been through a lot during his life. For one to
think that being a POW is not that bad, reveals that the person is not used to luxury
or anything close to a lavish lifestyle. It also talked about how the hobo was
the only one who would sleep near Billy. Everybody else in the train forced him
to sleep while standing because they did not like how he would yell and thrash
in his sleep. I think Vonnegut uses this ironic quote as humor; in addition to showing
that there are many people in this world who do have it worse than many of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment