The Prayer on the Wall

"God grant me

the serenity to accept

the things I cannot change

Courage

to change the things I can,

And wisdom always

to tell the difference."(p60)

This prayer may be the piece that explains the way the book is written. Undoubtedly, the way the book is written gives you the feeling as if Billy didn't care about anything, as if life just went on and on for him, no matter what happens. In the war he never says something like "I felt bad about it." or "I felt good about that other thing." He just went on with life, or if he did feel something he didn't say. You can see again the "So it goes" phrase from time to time. For example, "There was so much to see...corpses with barefeet that were blue and ivory. So it goes."(p 65) This phrase also makes you feel as if Billy didn't care about dead people being right there, in front of him." Maybe this is because of the lesson that he learned from Tralfamadore, since they told him that nobody really dies, and that you can change the moments of your life in any way you want, but the piece above is written while Billy is at the war, so he hadn't been kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians yet, although it can be written after he was kidnapped at some time when he decided to go back to the war maybe to remember for his Dresden war book. I don't know yet.