Chapter 7: A Poor Old Epithet

Even in the beginning of the novel, the audience was aware that an innocent American soldier would be shot by a firing squad for pillaging a teapot from the ruins of Dresden. In Chapter 4, Vonnegut further explains this character: Edgar Derby, a handsome, strong, forty-four year old man and father, a high school teacher in Indianapolis of "Contemporary Problems in Western Civilization."

An innocent (or ominous?) teapot.

In Chapter 7, he is referred to each time as "poor old Edgar Derby." This "poor old Edgar Derby" assisted to Billy Pilgrim after his shrieking bout in the prisoner of war camp. The "poor old Edgar Derby" pushed a cart to help prepare a communal meal for the Americans. He washed windows outside the syrup building. The "poor old Edgar Derby" cried when Billy handed him a spoonful of the sweet syrupy substance. The stock phrase describing Derby, called an epithet, reinforces his character: a strong, old but honorable man, humble, innocent, and doomed to die for a minuscule crime in the near future.