When Billy was in the veteran´s hospital he met Eliot Rosewater, the man who was assigned a bed next to Billy´s. Soon after Billy´s arrival Rosewater introduced Billy to science fiction books, by Kilgore Trout. Not much was said about Trout during Billy´s stay in the hospital, but some years after he encountered Trout in the streets of his home town, Ilium.
My first impression of Trout was that he was a crazy, mad, stubborn, rude, old man, because he was talking to a group of kids that worked for him, and he treated them very poorly. Also because he was the writer of many science fiction books with weird things in them. I didn´t like the character at all. Billy then talked with Trout and invited him to his 18th anniversary celebration. During the diner party, Trout made fun of Maggie White: “All the great chefs in the world are there. It´s a beautiful ceremony. Just before the casket is closed, the mourners sprinkle parsley and paprika on the deceased.” (pg 171) Maggie had asked him what the most famous thing he had written was and he responded like this but everything was made up. They continue talking and Trout tells her the following: “I´m not the only one who´s listening. God is listening, too. And on Judgement Day he´s going to tell you all the things you said and did. If it turns out they´re bad things instead of good things, that’s too bad for you, because you´ll burn forever and ever. The burning never stops hurting.” (pg. 172) Again Trout is just making fun of Maggie and wanted to scare her.
The humor Trout showed, made me like him more. It reminded me of my grandfather, uncles and mother, all who have a sense of humor. They never hurt people, but they make fun of them or things, whenever they can.
Another thing that interested me about Trout was the topic of one of his books: “[Trout] had written a book about money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.” (pg 167) This portrays the society in which we live in today. People now-a-days think that money is everything, the need for power and wealth has become an obsession for many, that people will go to any expenses in order to achieve it. A clear example is the current situation in Colombia. The people´s obsession for money and power has made many corrupt, robbing the country’s money for their own benefit.
Even though Trout is a made up character, I see Kurt Vonnegut reflected in him. Thanks to the reviews of the book, “our finest black-humorist…” (The Atlantic Monthly), and the constant humor used in Slaughterhouse Five, we can know that Vonnegut was a humorist. Also he was “known for his humanist beliefs,” (Wikipedia) which is represented in Trout´s book described above.
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