Chapter 3 - Adam and Eve

The Garden of Eden

     Vonnegut mentions Adam and Eve in the third chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five.  After stripping Billy Pilgrim and Roland Weary of their weapons during capture, the German commander takes Weary's boots and gives them to the fifteen-year-old boy accompanying him.  He then comments, referring to the boots, "If you look in there deeply enough, you'll see Adam and Eve."  Not understanding the man's words at first, Billy then seems to have a hallucination as he stares at the boots and sees "Adam and Eve in the golden depths."  He loved them for being "so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently."  Adam and Eve represent the innocence that all the Germans and Americans yearn for but is not possible through war.  However, Billy Pilgrim sees them on boots that were taken through the spoils of war, representing the corruptness that later came to Adam and Eve.  Vonnegut also parallels the innocence of Adam and Eve to the young boy that Billy loved also because of his innocence.  This is foreshadowing the downfall the innocent boy will have do to the corruptness of war.  Just as Adam and Eve had once been innocent but later corrupted by sin, the innocent boy will experience pain, suffering, and the ruins of war.