Sunday, October 12, 2008
Barbershop quartet
During Billy’s anniversary party Billy gets upset and becomes grotesque when his friends, “the Febs”, start to sing. Billy explanation for this feeling is that the singing reminded him of a barbershop quartet. He explains he thought the same thing about the reactions and expression from the German guards when they first surfaced Dresden after the cities destruction. Why do you think Billy was troubled by the memory of that day when he is constantly reliving different moments throughout the entire war?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Billy had some issues that he couldn't deal with during the war and didn't deal very well with after. It's almost as though he had all these feelings inside and when he was there, listening to the febs he was taken back to the moment where he very well could have realized that this situation he was in wasn't too desirable. Even though he was pretty well put together most other times, this one had an impact that tugged on his strings. It was probably very traumatic to come from a secure shelter to see that all other things were destroyed.
I think that he broke down when the quartet started to sing, because it brought him back to the bombing of Dresden. The quartet reminded him of the guards that brought the prisoners into the meat locker. That day was such a devastation and he never had the chance to really deal with his emotions. He went from working as a prisoner in the bustling town of Dresden, to coming out of the locker to see a world of torment, devastation, and nothingness.
Post a Comment