As young children when hearing a story, we always look for a hero and a villain. Similar to when we grow into young adults we read a story and always seem to relate to the protagonist as someone we can look up to. Despite the premise behind why we do that, we as readers have formed a complex into what a hero should look and be like. Though the definition of a hero to many people is the textbook version “a person admired for achievement and noble qualities” (merriam-webster.com), in the two stories Slaughter-House Five and Metamorphosis the main characters Billy and Gregor were not our traditional heroes. Both authors used similar techniques to make the readers feel sympathy for Billy and Gregor with the overall theme of the damages of war and the dynamics of family and betrayal.…show more content… In the SeattleTimes Berson wrote “This “children’s crusade” is an unsparingly harrowing depiction of the absurdity and viciousness of war, and an indictment of the Allies’ wholesale 1945 bombing of Dresden — which slaughtered more than 100,000 people in a city of no strategic value” (Seattletimes.Com). Berson tells the truth behind the horrible number of deaths which just shows this huge impact that Billy had gone through making the reader to allow ourselves to have more sympathy for Billy. Just like Gregor after metamorphosing into a cockroach Billy did not want to bothered. It stated in the novel, “He wished everybody will leave him alone. “You guys go on without me”, he said again and again” (Slaughter-House Five 43). The nonchalant-ness from Billy about dying was kind of the same way Gregor felt after he turned into this huge bug. We as readers feel sympathy though because no one wants anyone to die especially since these characters do not even care, like life is a beautiful gift and everyone should see that even if they are just characters in a
