Throughout the novel, Kurt Vonngeut’s uses multiple allusions to Christianity. Sometimes he explicitly says about something Christianly, other times he said something as small as a mentioning referencing it in a character’s dialogue. Either way, it was used consistently throughout the novel, to associate Christianity with the image of vulnerability or innocence.
Vonnegut’s first usage of religion is during Billy’s crucifix story. Vonnegut establishes that Billy has no faith instilled in him as a child. Yet he mentions that his mother takes him to church, all because “she was going to join a church as soon as she decided which one was right,”(38). Billy receives his crucifix from his mother during the Great Depression, it later goes up on his bedroom wall. All of this happens during the time in Billy’s life when he is innocent and vulnerable, which was Vonnegut’s goal.
In chapter three, a more specific biblical story is mentioned. The first man and the first woman are named in the passage. Looking into his commander’s boots, he sees both Adam and Eve. The way Vonnegut describes them as, “they were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently,”(53). He describes the…show more content… The quote from the Christmas carol was, “the cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but the little Lord Jesus no crying he makes,”(197). Billy is compared to Jesus in the sense that he does not openly or loudly cry, it is typically just soft tears. Vonnegut, makes the middle-aged optometrist out to be like the baby Jesus. Allowing that image of innocence to once again be applied to the character in which he is writing about. In chapter nine, Christianity is subtly brought back up by Vonnegut, during a moment of vulnerability on part of Montana. On Montana’s locket reads, “God grant me the serentity…,” (209). Vonnegut brings it back in this instance because Montana is in a vulnerable position, she too is naked like Adam and
