More To A Person Than Meets The Eye

Early on in the book, the reader can see that Billy is more timid than his fellow comrades. One of those comrades is Roland Weary. Weary has the complete opposite personality and demeanor of Billy --- confident, bossy, outgoing. In Chapter Three, however, this confident demeanor is challenged. On page fifty four, the quote: "And Weary, bug-eyed with terror, was being disarmed" (Vonnegut, 54), shows a new side to Weary --- he's scared. This quote stuck out to me because it reminded me of the idiom: "There's more to a person than meets the eye", and I realized that this is true for Weary. While being disarmed, Weary could've had his usual behaviour (the one he has around his comrades) displayed, but he didn't. The fact that he was "bug-eyed with terror" shows that he isn't always confident with the situation, that he can be vulnerable too, and that is evidence for showing a new side of him.

Knowing that Weary has sides to him that he doesn't let surface, like being scared, lead me to wonder if there were sides to Billy that haven't been "discovered" or "uncovered" yet? Is Billy really that timid? Or is there more to him than he lets on? If there are more sides to him, will readers see these sides as the story carries on?

This whole concept of having more to a person than meets the eye, is also shown in Haunted by Kay Hooper. A local sheriff, Trinity Nichols, shows that she does not know much about the paranormal world, but enough to know that it exists. Later in the book, it is discovered that Trinity knows quite a bit more than she let on, initially. This relates to Weary from Slaughterhouse Five because he didn't let on that he gets scared too, while Trinity didn't let on that she knew more than she told.