Mattatoio 5, Sintesi del corso di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Mattatoio 5 e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! 1. characters Billy Pilgrim Billy Pilgrim, a conservative, middle-aged optometrist living in upstate Ilium, New York. Born in 1922, Pilgrim leads a very bland life, except for the facts that at the end of World War II he came “unstuck in time” and began to jump back and forth among past, present, and future, and that in 1967 he was captured by a flying saucer from the planet Tralfamadore. The novel’s jerky structure mirrors his interplanetary and time travel. Pilgrim is thus a schizophrenic character: An apathetic, almost autistic widower in the present, he is also a crackpot visionary who claims to have visited another planet and to speak as a prophet. The cause of Pilgrim’s schizoid behavior, as the author makes clear, is the horror he witnessed in Dresden as a prisoner of war when that beautiful old German city was systematically incinerated by American bombers. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., the author of the novel and a character in it, living on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The first and last chapters of the novel form a frame around the narrative proper. In them, Vonnegut describes his trip with his wartime buddy, Bernard V. O’Hare, back to Dresden, Germany, where they were imprisoned during World War II, as well as current events (for example, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy). The persona of this narrator is naïve, idealistic, and fixated on World War II, especially on the fire-bombing of Dresden, a city of no apparent military significance. As he tells readers, Vonnegut himself was one of the few survivors of the destruction of Dresden, when he and other prisoners of war— including Pilgrim in the novel itself—were entombed in a slaughterhouse below the city and thus survived the holocaust above. Vonnegut surfaces several other times in the narrative, so history, fiction, author, and fictional characters intermingle freely. Montana Wildhack Montana Wildhack, a voluptuous film star who is captured and put in a zoo on Tralfamadore along with Billy Pilgrim, and who becomes his lover and bears his child while they are living in captivity there. Valencia Merble Pilgrim Valencia Merble Pilgrim, Pilgrim’s wife, a rich, overweight woman who is later killed rushing to his aid after a plane crash in which he is the only survivor. Howard W. Campbell, Jr. Howard W. Campbell, Jr., an American collaborator working for the Nazis who tries to convince Pilgrim and his fellow prisoners to defect to the German side. Edgar Derby Edgar Derby, an older, idealistic American soldier and former high-school teacher who stands up to Campbell but then is executed at the end of the war for the trivial act of stealing a teapot. Roland Weary Roland Weary, a pathetic and tiresome comrade of Pilgrim who dies in the boxcar taking the prisoners to Dresden. Paul Lazzaro Paul Lazzaro, a mean and ugly member of the band of prisoners being shipped to Dresden who vows to kill Pilgrim after the war in revenge for the death of Weary. He eventually fulfills his threat, in 1976. Kilgore Trout Kilgore Trout, a science-fiction writer living in Ilium. Barbara Billy's daughter. She is responsible for him after his injuries and Valencia's death, and the burden makes her resentful and picky. Robert Billy's son. Through he was a troublemaker in high school, Robert goes on to be a Green Beret who fights in Vietnam. Apathy and Passivity Apathy and passivity are natural responses to the idea that events are beyond our control. Throughout Slaughterhouse- Five Billy Pilgrim does not act so much as he is acted upon. If he is not captured by the Germans, he is kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians. Only later in life, when Billy tries to tell the world about his abduction by the Tralfamadorians, does he initiate action, and even that may be seen as a kind of response to his predetermined fate. Other characters may try to varying degrees to initiate actions, but seldom to any avail. As Vonnegut notes in Chapter Eight, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces." Death Given the absence of free will and the inevitability of events, there is little reason to be overly concerned about death. The Tralfamadorian response to death is, "So it goes," and Vonnegut repeats this phrase at every point in the novel where someone, or something, dies. Billy Pilgrim, in his travels through time, "has seen his own death many times" and is unconcerned because he knows he will always exist in the past. Patriotism The world as depicted in Slaughterhouse-Five is a world in which patriotism twists into nationalism and militarism and becomes an excuse for acts of violence and mass destruction. Those who claim to be patriots, such as "Wild Bob," the American prisoner of war who gives speeches to imaginary troops, or Bertrand Copeland Rumfoord, an Air Force historian who defends the Dresden raid, are deluded at best and malevolent at worst. More realistic is the reaction of the German soldiers in Dresden to the American prisoners: "There was nothing to be afraid of. Here were more crippled human beings, more fools like themselves." War and Peace Slaughterhouse-Five deals with many different themes, but it is most of all a novel about the horrors of war. For Vonnegut, war is not an enterprise of glory and heroism, but an uncontrolled catastrophe for all involved, and anyone who seeks glory and heroism in war is deluded. Although World War II is regarded by most as a justified conflict which defeated the genocidal regime of Nazi Germany, Vonnegut sees only victims on all sides, from the American soldier executed by the Germans for looting to the 135,000 German civilians killed in the Allied firebombing of Dresden. The horrors of the war are so overwhelming that Vonnegut doubts his ability to write about them. Speaking directly in the first chapter, he says of the novel, "It is so short and jumbled and jangled... because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." The only response to the nightmare of war is a profound alienation and distancing, made literal by Billy Pilgrim's being "unstuck in time." Appropriately, Billy's condition offers the most striking image of peace in the novel, as he becomes unstuck in time while watching a war movie on television and sees it backwards: The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.... The steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals... [which] were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again. Science and Technology Although Slaughterhouse-Five does not deal as directly with issues of science and technology as do other Vonnegut novels such as Player Piano and Cat's Cradle , the limitations of technology remain an important theme. The destruction of World War II would not have been possible without "advances" in technology (the long-range bombers that destroyed Dresden; the poison gas used on concentration camp inmates). And the extraordinarily advanced technology of the Tralfamadorians not only cannot prevent the end of the Universe, but actually causes it: "'We [Tralfamadorians] blow it up, experimenting with new fuels for our flying saucers." The Illusion of Free Will In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut utilizes the Tralfamadorians, with their absurdly humorous toilet-plunger shape, to discuss the philosophical question of whether free will exists. These aliens live with the knowledge of the fourth dimension, which, they say, contains all moments of time occurring and reoccurring endlessly and simultaneously. Because they believe that all moments of time have already happened (since all moments repeat themselves endlessly), they possess an attitude of acceptance about their fates, figuring that they are powerless to change them. Only on Earth, according to the Tralfamadorians, is there talk of free will, since humans, they claim, mistakenly think of time as a linear progression. Throughout his life, Billy runs up against forces that counter his free will. When Billy is a child, his father lets him sink into the deep end of a pool in order to teach him how to swim. Much to his father’s dismay, however, Billy prefers the bottom of the pool, but, against his free will to stay there, he is rescued. Later, Billy is drafted into the war against his will. Even as a soldier, Billy is a joke, lacking training, supplies, and proper clothing. He bobs along like a puppet in Luxembourg, his civilian shoes flapping on his feet, and marches through the streets of Dresden draped in the remains of the scenery from a production of Cinderella. Even while Vonnegut admits the inevitability of death, with or without war, he also tells us that he has instructed his sons not to participate in massacres or in the manufacture of machinery used to carry them out. But acting as if free will exists does not mean that it actually does. As Billy learns to accept the Tralfamadorian teachings, we see how his actions indicate the futility of free will. Even if Billy were to train hard, wear the proper uniform, and be a good soldier, he might still die like the others in Dresden who are much better soldiers than he. That he survives the incident as an improperly trained joke of 1957 Autumn Billy is elected president of the Ilium, New York, Lions Club (Chapter Two). 1964 The narrator visits Bernard V. O'Hare, an old war buddy, to discuss the bombing of Dresden (Chapter One). 1964–1966 During these two years, the narrator teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa (Chapter One), and Billy meets Kilgore Trout, the science-fiction writer whom Eliot Rosewater talked about, for the first time (Chapter Eight). 1965 Billy commits his mother into a nursing home (Chapter Two). 1967 The narrator and Bernard V. O'Hare return to Dresden to recount their wartime experiences (Chapters One and Ten). August Now a past president of the Lions Club, Billy attends a Club luncheon, where a Marine Corps major comments that he should be proud of his son, Robert, a Green Beret fighting in Vietnam (Chapter Three). A flying saucer from Tralfamadore kidnaps Billy on his daughter Barbara's wedding night (Chapters Two and Four). 1968 A plane carrying Billy to an optometry convention in Montreal, Canada, crashes on Sugarbush Mountain, Vermont; except for Billy and the copilot, everyone, including Billy's father-in-law, is killed (Chapters Two and Seven). Valencia, Billy's wife, dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while he is recuperating in a Vermont hospital following the plane crash (Chapter Two). On the day he returns home from the hospital, Billy goes to New York City, hoping to appear on television to discuss his kidnapping by Tralfamadorians; eventually he appears on a New York City radio talk show (Chapter Nine). 1976 February 13 As he foresaw, Billy is assassinated in Chicago by a hit man hired by Paul Lazzaro, a fellow soldier during the war; Lazzaro had promised Roland Weary that he would kill Billy to avenge Weary's claim that Billy caused his capture by the Germans after their three days of wandering (Chapter Six). 7. Critic articles a. Dresden bombed The bombing of Dresden began February 13, 1945, and lasted through April 17 — a period of two months — yet even today, it remains one of the most controversial military decisions in modern warfare. Why this premier cultural city was devastated during World War II continues to be clouded in mystery. Two contradictory reasons for the bombing have emerged. First, with the Russian army advancing on the Eastern Front, German forces were being solidified to repel the Russians and needed to be "softened," thereby allowing the Russians to advance more easily. Second, with the war winding down and the Western Allies and Russians realizing that conquered land would be up for grabs, the bombing would demonstrate to the Russians the immense power of the Western Allies (the United States, Great Britain, and France) and would deter the Russians from grabbing land; besides, if the Russians occupied land that the Western Allies wanted, the bombing would devastate the land, making it worthless. Code-named Thunderclap, a plan put forth by Allied military leaders to bomb sequentially one large German city after another, the Dresden destruction began the night of February 13, 1945, when Britain's Royal Air Force sent planes to bomb the city. In all, the Royal Air Force sent 800 aircraft over Dresden, dropping incendiary bombs that caused massive devastation — not because of their initial impact, but because of the fires that ensued. The following afternoon, the U.S. 8th Air Force assaulted Dresden with 400 bombers, then continued with 200 more planes on February 15. A brief respite ensued after these February bombings, but on March 2, the U.S. 8th Air Force again bombed the city, using 400 more aircraft. Finally, the destruction of Dresden concluded with the 8th Air Force sending 572 bombers over the city on April 17. The number of persons killed during the two-month bombing of Dresden is impossible to pinpoint precisely. Estimated casualties range from 35,000 up to 135,000, a disparity due in part to the chaotic nature of all wartime bombings. The great number of refugees flooding into Dresden from the outlying regions, desperately hoping to escape the oncoming Russian army, complicates the details of this tragedy. Information about the bombing remained secret until 1978, when the U.S. Air Force declassified many of the documents concerning Thunderclap. However, the true reasons for the exorbitant bombing remain ambiguous. The Allies insist that Dresden housed military installations such as barracks, camps composed of makeshift huts, and at least one munitions storage depot. However, the hutted camps were full of refugees, not soldiers, and the munitions storage depot housed munitions stores used in mining. In addition, the Allies claim that Dresden was the site of a communications center that needed to be destroyed in order to help the Russian Allies approaching from the east. Clearly, many citizens in both Britain and the United States were so outraged by the Germans' bombing of London earlier in the war that they were happy to see a substantial retaliation of some sort. There was little mourning for Dresden by the Allies. Given the military reasons advanced for bombing Dresden, the issue is even more clouded when we consider the political reasons behind the action. A Royal Air Force memo cites the need to strike the German army behind its front line, but continues with the belief that the bombing will also show the advancing Russians the power of the Western Allied forces. As World War II wound down, some Russian and Western Allied leaders openly described the final war campaigns as a victors' "land-grab" operation. However, after the war, a leading Russian general suggested that the Allies destroyed cities in eastern Germany bound to fall under Russian control with the sole purpose of leaving worthless rubble to them. Whatever the reason — or reasons — for the Allies' bombing of Dresden, the fact remains clear that the city was destroyed and civilians were killed to a greater extent by far than ever occurred in the Germans' bombing of London. The image of a destroyed Dresden that once housed one of the greatest art collections in the world and was truly one of the renowned musical and architectural centers can still cause entirely different reactions, ranging from those who say that the bombing was necessary for military and political reasons, to those who claim that the bombing was a senseless and unnecessary act, aimed only at destroying German neighborhoods where strategic installations did not even exist. b. free will The most significant theme in Slaughterhouse-Five concerns the dichotomy of predestination and free will. Over and over again, Vonnegut proclaims that there is no such thing as free will. Humankind is the slave of predestination, meaning that all human actions are prescribed before they occur. A person who chooses to do something is not really choosing at all — the choice is already made. This complicated issue can be confusing, but grasping the history of the arguments and Vonnegut's take on them will help us better understand and enjoy the novel. The juxtaposition of predestination with the exercise of free will is as old as human thought itself. In the pagan world, before the rise of Western civilization and Christianity, the idea of predestination was accepted as truth. Pagan gods were supreme and decided the fates of humans, who had no effect on their own destiny. The belief in predestination was still commonly held throughout much of the medieval world. It was believed that an all-embracing plan was based in an aspect of God called Providence, and that the carrying out of Providence's decrees was delegated to a force called Destiny. Sometime around 500 A.D., the Roman writer Boethius published a tract called The Consolation of Philosophy, a document that was instrumental in bringing about changes in philosophy in the Middle Ages. Boethius raised important questions: If things are predestined, humans do not have to worry about their own actions because they can blame their behavior on predestination. But if humans have a choice in whatever they do, then how can God truly have foreknowledge? Ultimately, Boethius acknowledged that God's foreknowledge and humans' free will are mutually exclusive: They have nothing to do with one another. More than seven hundred years later, Thomas Aquinas corroborated Boethius' theory, but Aquinas' approach was somewhat different. Aquinas' explanation depended on the understanding that God exists and functions outside of time. God's being is measured not temporally, in terms of humans' notion of time, but by eternity, which overlaps the whole of time. The things that happen to humans at different times are, to God, "present time." Consequently, an event that is likely to happen is not future, but present. In short, God does not have foreknowledge as humans define it, but rather a knowledge of a never-changing present. Vonnegut takes a clearly secular position concerning the dichotomy of predestination and free will. Although he includes many biblical allusions and offers a number of references to Christianity in Slaughterhouse-Five, he rejects Christianity as a truth unto itself, but he does ascribe to the principles of Christianity's philosophy. While most people choose sides in a conflict, Vonnegut's concept of our world affords him no earthly position of judgment. For example, he refuses to say if there is a right or a wrong side in waging modern warfare. Neither the Americans, nor the Japanese, nor even the Germans are more to blame for war's destruction. Shakespeare's Hamlet serve much the same purpose. These seemingly coarse and insignificant personalities do much more than provide comic relief in the midst of tragic action. Their conversation is fraught with profound musings on theological issues, and their dialogue contains Latin terms dealing with legal questions. But the incongruity of their lowly position contrasted with their profundity supplies the humor. In Slaughterhouse-Five, the image of Billy as the clown, both pathetic and absurd, raises questions about the difference between illusion and reality. His anti-heroic status undermines our assumptions about soldiers who fight in war. Because we see Billy as an inept soldier, we therefore question the validity of the war in which he is fighting. In addition, remembering that Billy's son, Robert, is fighting in Vietnam, and that Slaughterhouse-Five was published in 1969, during the Vietnam War, the validity of that war is called into question as well. The authority figures responsible for the war, be they Bertram Copeland Rumfoord or Howard W Campbell, Jr., are more likely to earn our condemnation when we see what kind of soldiers they send into action. The illusion of the heroic soldier icons (John Wayne, Frank Sinatra) depicted in films and in war propaganda is replaced in Slaughterhouse-Five by the reality of Billy Pilgrim. d. narrator In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut takes an omniscient point of view, electing to be both inside and above the action of the text. Such a position allows him to go beyond the limits of the characters' perceptions in order to let us know what is happening both on Earth and on Tralfamadore at any given time. Vonnegut's telling us things that the characters cannot know gives us a broader perspective of time and space in the novel. In addition to being the narrator, Vonnegut is present within the text as the narrative's central character in the first and last chapters. He appears in the text on three occasions to remind us that, although he is now above the novel's actions and is reflecting on the past events, he was once part of the action. Along with Vonnegut's being an omniscient narrator, he demands that we participate in the narrative, He connects events that are not chronologically linear, but that exist harmoniously in psychological time. We must learn to infer transitions and to make equations between these images: In so doing, we relive — like the Tralfamadorians and Billy Pilgrim — past moments with the added knowledge of the future of those moments. A first-time reader of Slaughterhouse-Five is likely to pass over Vonnegut's short bursts of imagery without any particular notice. Many of these images, recalled when something similar happens at a later time or in another place, connect and reconnect the novel's themes. For example, the appearance of Vonnegut's first dog not only recalls his second dog, it invokes the events of the time when the second dog appears. In turn, both dogs recall not just the presence of the German shepherd dog in Luxembourg, but the events that take place at that time. And likewise, the image of the golden cavalry boots worn by the old German corporal not only foreshadows the image of Billy's silver boots, but also events from both perspectives in time. These images are important because they help link together different scenes that occur at different times. Although individual events in Slaughterhouse-Five seem fragmented at first, Vonnegut's imagery makes the novel a cohesive whole. 8. Unusual words Adolphe Menjou (1890–1963) twentieth-century film actor known for his character roles; among his films are I Married a Woman (1958) and Step Lively (19441). Appomattox a town in south-central Virginia; on April 9, 1865, at the Appomattox Courthouse, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War. Ausable Chasm Located in northeast New York, the chasm was caused by the plunging Ausable River, creating spectacular waterfalls, rushing rapids, and fantastic rock formations. Balkanized a term originally referring to the political division of the Balkans in the early twentieth century; today, it means dividing a region or territory into small units. bandsaw a power saw for woodworking, consisting of a toothed metal band coupled to and driven around two wheels. Barca-Lounger an upholstered lounge chair similar to a La-Z-Boy recliner. the battle for Hill 875 near Dakto a battle during the Vietnam War beginning November 3, 1967, and lasting 22 days. the Battle of the Bulge the last German offensive on the Western Front during World War II, occurring between December 16, 1944, and January 16, 1945, in the Ardennes region of southern Belgium; "Bulge" refers to the wedge that the Germans drove into the Allied lines before being repulsed back. Breslau also known as Wroclaw, a city in southwest Poland; assigned to Poland by the Potsdam Conference. Bronze Star a U.S. military decoration awarded either for heroism or for meritorious achievement in ground combat. The Brothers Karamazov Written by the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and first published between 1879 and 1880, this novel addresses one dysfunctional family's search for values and unity. Buchenwald a village in central Germany; site of a Nazi concentration camp during World War IL calcimine a white or tinted liquid used as a wash for walls and ceilings. cannonball stove also referred to as a cannon stove; a round, cast-iron stove, hence the term "cannonball." carbolic acid a poisonous compound used in resins, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. carbon-monoxide poisoning Colorless and odorless, carbon monoxide (CO) is a highly poisonous gas formed by the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous material, such as gasoline. Carlsbad Caverns a group of limestone caverns in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeast New Mexico. Celine Louis-Ferdinand Celine (1894–1961); French writer known for his tortured, angry novels portraying a world without values, beauty, or decency. Charles Darwin (1809–82) British naturalist who developed a theory of evolution referred to today as Darwinism; Darwinism states that all species develop through natural selection based on the ability to survive and reproduce. cockles idiomatically, one's innermost feelings. Colt .45 automatic the popular name of the .45 caliber Colt U.S. Army M1911 Al semiautomatic pistol; named for Samuel Colt (1814–1862), the American firearms inventor who developed the first revolver. Coventry a city in central England that was heavily bombed by the Germans during World War II, laying waste to over 50,000 homes. Crimea a region and peninsula of southern Ukraine in eastern Europe, on the Black Sea. Croesus the last king of Lydia (560–546 B.C.), an ancient and Roman province in southwest Asia Minor on the Aegean Sea; slang for a wealthy man. croquet an outdoor game in which players, using long-handled mallets, drive wooden balls through a series of wickets. deedlee-balls small balls usually made from yarn; often used as accessory decorations. delousing to get rid of lice by physical or chemical means. derringer pistol a small, short-barreled pistol that has a large bore; named for Henry Derringer (1786–1868), an American gunsmith. Doric columns heavy columns with plain, saucer-shaped capitals and no base. double pneumonia an acute or chronic disease marked by the inflammation of both lungs. dum-dums hollow-point small-arms bullets designed to expand upon impact, inflicting gaping wounds. Dunkirk a city in northwest France on the North Sea; in World War II, more than 330,000 Allied troops were evacuated from its beaches in the face of enemy fire (May–June 1940). the Dutch Reformed Church a religious organization originating in the Netherlands and known for its belief in predestination. Earl Warren (1891–1974) chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969, during which time the Court ruled on many social issues, including civil rights. Eheu, fugaces labuntur anni Latin, meaning "Alas, the years slip by"; one of the mature observations of the Roman poet Horace (65–8 B.C.). Elbe River a major European river flowing through Germany, including the city of Dresden, and the Czech Republic. flibbertigibbet a silly or scatterbrained person. Norman Mailer American novelist born in 1923; best known for his World War II novel The Naked and the Dead (1948). Palestine often called "the Holy Land"; a historical region between the eastern Mediterranean shore and the Jordan River. the Parthenon the chief temple of the goddess Athena, built on the Acropolis at Athens between 447 and 432 B.C. Pearl Harbor the Hawaiian harbor where most of the U.S. naval fleet was when Japanese planes attacked without warning on December 7, 1941; afterward, the U.S. declared war against Japan. Pirates of Penzance A comic opera with lyrics by W S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan, it debuted in London on April 3, 1880. Pope Innocent the Third pope from 1198 to 1216. potbellied stove a short, rounded, usually freestanding stove, in which wood or coal is burned. Prussians citizens of a member-state of republican Germany; Prussia was established in 1918 and formally abolished after World War II. Purple Heart a U.S. military decoration awarded to members of the armed forces wounded in action. Queen Elizabeth the First (1533–1603) Queen of England and Ireland (1558–1603) who reestablished Protestantism in England. The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane's 1895 novel about the American Civil War, depicting the psychological turmoil of a cowardly soldier in combat. Robert Kennedy (1925–68) American politician who served as U.S. Attorney General (1961–64) under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and, after Kennedy's death, under President Lyndon B. Johnson; assassinated in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan while campaigning for the presidency. rumpus room a room for plays and parties, often in the basement of a house or building. Shetland pony a small pony originating in the Shetland Islands, in northern Scotland. Silesia a region of central Europe primarily in southwestern Poland and the northern Czech Republic. Silver Star a U.S. military decoration awarded for gallantry, or courage. Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) English scientist who invented differential calculus and formulated the theory of universal gravitation. Spanish thumbscrew an instrument of torture used to compress the thumb, causing extreme pain. SPARS Women's Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard; derived from the U.S. Coast Guard's motto, Semper Paratus, meaning "Always Prepared." "The Spirit of '76" an 1876 oil painting by Archibald MacNeal Willard (1836–1918), called "Yankee Doodle"; it captures the fighting qualities of the colonial troops in the three main figures, two drummers and a fife player. Theodore Roethke An American poet (1908–63), his lyrical verse is characterized by introspection; he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems The Waking: Poems 1933–1953 (1953). Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) the twenty-sixth president of the U.S. 1901–09); won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). The Three Musketeers the three main characters (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis) in Alexandre Dumas' French historical romance The Three Musketeers (1844). Tiger tank a heavily armored tank, weighing 56 tons and mounting a long 88-mm. gun, used by the Germans during World War II. Tobruk a city in northeast Libya on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Tuileries Gardens the public gardens located in the center of Paris and designed for Louis XIV. Uncle Tom's Cabin A novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in book form in 1852, it dramatizes the plight of slaves and is often cited as one of the causes of the American Civil War. V-1 a robot bomb deployed by the Germans in World War II. V-2 a long-range, liquid-fuel rocket used by the Germans as a ballistic missile in World War II. vertigo the sensation of dizziness often caused by the fear of heights. Vietnam A country in southeast Asia, it was partitioned into North Vietnam and South Vietnam after 1954, and reunited in 1976 after the end of the Vietnam War (1954– 75). Von der Kuppel . . . Das hat der Feind gethan! German, meaning "From the cupola of the Church of Our Lady, I saw the sad ruins among the beautiful city buildings; the church sexton praised the architect for having built the bombproof church and cupola. Then the sacristan, musing about the ruins that lay all around us, said critically, using few words: 'The devil has done this!' " vox celeste Latin, meaning "celestial voice." vox humana Latin, meaning "human voice." WACS Women's Army Corp. WAFS Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. WAVES Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service. William Blake (1757–1827) English poet and engraver, perhaps best known for his book of poems Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794).