Billy is the main character of slaughterhouse five , but he's not exactly the hero of the book. Or rather, he doesn't have the heroic qualities usually associated with the main soldier in a story about wartime. In a word okay, three words he's a weirdo.Who wears silver boots
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Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
Characters Billy Pilgrim
SummarySHMOOP PREMIUM
TOPICS Character Roles (Protagonist, Antagonist...)Tools of Characterization
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BILLY PILGRIM
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Character Analysis
Billy is the main character of Slaughterhouse-Five, but he's not exactly the hero of the book. Or rather, he doesn't have the heroic qualities usually associated with the main soldier in a story about wartime. In a word—okay, three words—he's a weirdo.Who wears silver boots.
Billy is a funny-looking optometry student when he gets drafted to enter the military. He is sent to fight in Luxembourg against the Germans and is promptly captured by a small group of German scouts. He manages to get on nearly everyone's bad side by being so feckless and pathetic, with his constant nightmares and his weak body, but he does survive where a lot of others don't. He even manages to make it through one of the worst atrocities of the war... the Dresden firebombing.
