As defined by Webster, the word "character" is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual, I thought this was interesting, after I read "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. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters" (Vonnegut 164) I thought that it was true, that soldiers are stripped of their characters, they are trained to be machines. To follow orders, to kill, to never give up, and to never forget the goal. The leaders of war want each individual in their Armies to be the same, to be pawns that they play with, pieces of the war played to win.
What I found interesting, is that Billy seems to be a character, he is odd and unlike many of the soldiers. On page 34, we realize that he's pretty weak, "Billy wouldn't do anything to save himself. Billy wanted to quite" (Vonnegut). This is not how soldiers were supposed to be. Billy was not a good soldier, and it made him a character.
I also found that throughout the novel, Billy always found the character part of his comrades. He would focus on the differences of each other, instead of the common trait of being a soldier.
When he was fighting in the war, did Vonnegut want to be the good soldier, the one that was a machine, and just fought to win? Or did he want to be different and be a character? Did he want to fight against the system? Or did he want to just fall in line, and do what his country bid of him?
I think this idea can be compared to the bigger picture of war, and how whole army can have character, we see this when the American Army was referred to as compassionate, the German Nazis were ruthless and unforgiving, but well trained, and in any of the army decisions. I think that even though we try to have soldiers, and armies not characterized, people's true characters end up being found in the hard times, times such as war.
I think every soldier has their own reason as to why they fight. It may be a shared reason such as patriotism. It is really difficult to guess someone's motive or reasoning, especially behind an action where it could go either way. It could very well be a combination of both, or none at all --- an entirely different reason. I don't have an answer to your question(s), but I do know that the reason had to be strong because it takes a lot of courage and braveness to be a part of the armed forces. I do agree with you that people's "true colours" unleash when in a intense situation, such as war.
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