1. The Necessity of Human Greed
... bursts into tears. It is the only time he cries in the whole war. Vonnegut reminds the reader of the epigraph at the start of the book, an excerpt from a Christmas carol that describes the baby Jesus as not crying. Billy cries very little. He leaps in time back to the hospital in Vermont, where Ruumford is finally questioning Billy about Dresden ... ...
... as he relives his moments of happiness. Perhaps Vonnegut is using this as a sort of motivation for people not to act atrociously. Before chapter one even begins, Vonnegut quotes the Christmas carol Away in a Manger. The cattle are lowing, The baby awakes. But the little Lord Jesus No crying He makes. Even before the reader is introduced to any ideas of passivity ... ...