Chapter 1: Babies

          "You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs" (Vonnegut 14).

            While reading the first chapter of Slaughterhouse Five, Brendan O’Hare’s wife, Mary O’Hare presents the reader with her extremely strong and out spoken opinion on war in general. Brendan O’Hare was one of Vonnegut’s old war buddies during his service. As soon as Mary opened the door to welcome Vonnegut into her house he could tell that she was obviously angry about his presence in her home. After many death looks and evil eyes she gave Vonnegut she finally spoke. She angrily declared that the “men” were just “babies” in the war, and that all they did was pretend that they were men. She then accused Vonnegut by saying that he will glorify and promote war in his book. Vonnegut quickly answers her back to ensure her that he has no intention to do  so, and he also gives her more satisfaction by including that when he is finished he will call it “The Children’s Crusade.” I believe that Vonnegut included this conversation with Mary to show that extreme actions that were taken in war and most of the actions were in the hands of children or in other cases so called “men” who were just at the end of their childhood if that. By including that he will name the book “The Children’s Crusade” Vonnegut reveals that he believes war is unjust. He compares the Children’s Crusade of the thirteenth-century to World War II, because it has the same basis of allowing young men or “babies” to serve in war and make decisions that most middle age, experienced men would struggle to make themselves.