IV.  Mustard gas and roses

In many books the author tries to portray themselves in different ways. It can be an experience, values, personality traits etc.

From what I’ve read of slaughterhouse five Kurt Vonnegut is in a way talking about his own life, you can recognize this because he constantly gives hints about his life.

“Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath—mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up.”

I find the mustard and roses quotes interesting because its something really odd to say, its not normal for someone to “smell” this way. At the begging of the book, the first time they make reference to this saying, I couldn’t understand it. Like why would someone smell this way? But after reading more I found out that it is talking about drunk people. People who drink a lot generate a really bad breath, and Vonnegut refers to it with this smell. Like Vonnegut said he is the one who called up his friends when he was drunk, so he is portraying himself as the person who by mistake called Billy Pilgrim.