Title Deserved
I came upon a military pod cast about Fredrick the Great and it made me wonder about his title see his true title was that of Fredrick II of Prussia. However he became the Great because he took a small nation and reshaped it military so that it would be such a power that it would reshape Europe with its influence until 1945 and the defeat of Nazi Germany. Here is a man who used raw power to change the way the world looked at him and his country.This is not the fist time this epithet had been used there is of course Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great who conquered the know world. William the Conqueror of England, Ivan the Terrible who changed Russia, and Louis the Fat of France the names all give you an idea on why they are famous.
Names are powerful history and war a filled with them so I took the time to looked back over Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and put the names in a new perspective.
Bill the Pilgrim: if you look at this and the book you see he is taking many journeys during the book from home to war, from the earth to another planet, within time, and inside him.
Roland the Weary: some one who is tired and weak, but ironically thinks he is the strongest of them and even in death is so weak he blames another for it.
Edgar the Derby: a man racing against time most arguably the strongest of men who dies for the weakest of reason in a race that he could not win.
To have these names to go with the characters seems fitting it puts another layer into the story. I think Vonnegut must have researched these names for sometime. And unlike the other names these are ones that seem very appropriate. History has away of seeing things a bit askew. It makes me ponder if the practice of giving a title comes with the job a leader does would any of the world leaders of today have one and what would the titles be?
Slaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut
