Chapter 7: Epithet

            Even from the beginning of Slaughterhouse Five the reader was aware of the fate of the innocent, handsome, old (for war), forty-four year old, high school teacher from Indianapolis. Vonnegut told us this high school teacher’s fate which was that he would be shot by a firing squad for pillaging a teapot from the ruins of Dresden. In chapter four, Vonnegut finally gives the audience a name to this description, Edgar Derby. However, in chapter seven Vonnegut seems to refer to Derby as “poor old Edgar Derby.” Throughout this chapter it seemed as if whenever Derby did something he was referred to as, “poor old Edgar Derby.” For example, “He and poor old Edgar Derby were pushing an empty two-wheeled cart down a dirt lane between empty pens for animals” (Vonnegut 157). Also, “The only other person who could see Billy and his spoon was poor old Edgar Derby, who was washing a window outside… So Billy made a lollipop for him [poor old Edgar Derby]. He [Billy Pilgrim] opened the window. He stuck the lollipop into poor old Derby’s gaping mouth” (Vonnegut 161). An epithet is an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. I believe that “poor old Edgar Derby” is an epithet because it is describing Derby and how he is a strong, honorable man, who is doomed to die in the near future.