Chapter 3: Adam, Eve, and the Forbidden Fruits

“But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal’s boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them” (Vonnegut 53).

The root of all human innocence and existence, Adam and Eve are the first: the first to falter, to sin, to blatantly disregard the wishes of God. They are certainly not the last. At the moment of his capture, Billy Pilgrim appears delusional and has almost reverted to a childlike, helpless state in the frigid forest as he dances with death. Outside of reality, he sees Adam and Eve in the repugnant corporal’s enviable golden boots, and Billy “loved them.” Adam and Eve represent Billy himself, who was “so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently,” as well as representing all of the young American soldiers, many still children with the innocence of Adam of Eve, who thrust themselves in the horrific depths of war. God gave Adam and Eve the Garden of Eden, with one restriction: do not take from the Tree of Knowledge. God gave humans the Earth, with one restriction: the commandment to love Him and to therefore not kill. Well, we all know how well humans have managed to follow that. Vonnegut hints that war is the product of humans falling subject to the forbidden fruit's temptations of hatred and violence.