A NAIVE SIN

In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, American soldier Billy has been left behind enemy lines after brutal fighting. He lies on the ground, demoralized and wishing for his life to end. When he looks into the boots of a German soldier who discovers him, he sees Adam and Eve, naked and vulnerable. The vision seems to be saying that humanity’s capacity for war is as natural as the biblical act of tasting the forbidden fruit—it’s an inevitable, almost innocent, extension of human nature. Perhaps this is Billy’s way of reconciling with the chaos of war.