Chapter 4: Situational Irony

          Throughout chapter four the hobo on the train with Billy would often tell Billy things on the lines of, “I been hungrier than this… I been in worse places than this. This ain’t so bad” (Vonnegut 68). And so this confident hobo would continue to preach his words of wisdom to Billy in chapter four as he said, ‘“This ain’t bad. I can be comfortable anywhere”’ (Vonnegut 79). The hobo said this to Billy Pilgrim because none of the other soldier wanted to sleep near him. Through the hobo’s over confidence and willingness to admit that this is nothing what the Germans are doing to him, the reader is to believe that the hobo would survive the train ride and the poor German treatment. However, the opposite occurred in this chapter the very next day after his statement to Billy. The hobo died and this is a great example of situational irony, because what was expected to happen and what actually happen were two completely different expectations that the reader would have never thought would happen to the hobo in the future of the book. Through the hobo’s confidence the readers were under the impression that he would be a survivor, but instead he was just another “so it goes.”