This book was written to be an antiwar narrative. There are dozens of incidents and quotations throughout the book that make it very clear, very quickly, what the author's standpoint on war is. Not only is the book inundated with thousands of meaningless deaths, but many riddles and double meanings. For a Tralfamadorian, it does not really matter how you live your live, as long as you have at least one happy moment to relive for eternity. Billy Pilgrim, just like any other human being, can not choose which points in his life to relive. He relives cruelty and horror just as much 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, the author cites the story of baby Jesus. He tells us about how the cattle have awakened Jesus, yet he does not cry about it. He simply ignores it.
Vonnegut uses dark irony in a very effective way, which not only disturbs the reader, but connects various events throughout the story. For example, a 44 year old high school teacher named Edgar Derby wanted to be able to fight in the war. He had some connections, and was able to get in. He survived right through until the end of the war, but was executed for having stolen a teapot. Billy Pilgrim, however, not only manages to survive the entire war despite his willingness to lie down and die, but leaves Germany with a rather large diamond in his pocket. Perhaps the greatest ironic incident is when the model English soldiers tell the war-torn Americans that they needn't worry about bombs or other aspects of war while they are in Dresden. Shortly after the Americans arrived in Dresden, the city was completely destroyed by relentless bombing from the Allied forces.