Scarred for Life

"They had both found life meaningless, partly because of what they had seen in the war. Rosewater, for instance, had shot a fourteen-year-old fireman, mistaking him for a German soldier. So it goes. And Billy had seen the greatest massacre in European history, which was the fire-bombing of Dresden. So it goes." (128)

This passage sets a tone for how Vonnegut wants his audience to perceive war in this novel. From a normal perspective, it seems that coming back from the war, the two med had gone insane. Rosewater starts shooting public service workers, and Billy thinks he can time-travel now. This passage implies to the reader that war is a terrible experience and that there are events which can scar a person for life if seen. That's exactly what happened to Billy and Rosewater. The war had taken its toll on their minds, and they were left coveting obscure science-fiction novels.

The Tralfamadorians, as it seems, view death as just another small event. They move on like nothing had happened. It's true everyone will die, and they just accept it as part of life and progress. As humans, we mourn when someone close dies and hold different ceremonies for the person and their relatives. Basically, we put a lot of importance in the value of a life. As of now, it is unclear what, during the war, had made Rosewater go insane, but the audience knows what influenced Billy. Watching Thousands of bodies have fire bombs rained on them clearly affected the way Billy lived after the war. Billy saw the lives of thousands of German citizens extinguished instantly with the Dresden bombing. Clearly, Vonnegut tries to show his readers that what was seen can't be unseen, and what Billy had seen in war would mentally affect him for the rest of his life.

Q: How does someone mentally recover from seeing something as horrific as the Dresden fire-bombing?