Chapter 3 of Slaughterhouse-Five takes place inside a train transporting prisoners of war. This chapter alludes to one of the primary costs of war; the sanity of its survivors. In the chapter, there are several characters who show signs of losing their grasp on reality. One of them was "Wild Bob". He began yelling and screaming at the prisoners as if they were of his own regiment, even though only one was, and he wasn't listening. He ranted about how "after the war he was going to have a regimental reunion in his hometown, which was Cody, Wyoming. He was going to barbecue whole steers." After losing his sanity, he died. So it goes.
Another character from chapter 3 is the ex-hobo that sleeps in Billy's boxcar. He constantly goes on about how "This ain't bad. This ain't bad at all." Later on, he dies. His last words were "This ain't bad". So it goes.
Slaughterhouse-Five shows very clearly the effect war has on the psyche of it soldiers. His firsthand experience allows him to write a realistic account of the horrors of war.
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