Chapter 5

  

"The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought...Oh, boy—they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time! And that thought had a brother:  "There are right people to lynch." Who? People not well connected. So it goes" (Vonnegut 109).

In the quotation, Vonnegut is explaining the concept from Billy's roommate Rosewater's science fiction book, The Gospel from Outer Space. The book focuses on Christ, and the way he ended up crucified. My picture reflects this idea, as it is Christ nailed to the crucifix

Although I was not very fond of this section of the story (or this chapter in general), I was somewhat intrigued by the idea that how connected someone is can alter people's motives and actions. Having read this, I now see the logic in the idea, and I recognize that people often consider something to be right or wrong based on one's social connections. During the time when African Americans were being lynched in the south, the were not fairly judged based on their actions. The important thing to the lynchers was that the person being lynched was nobody to them, so they saw that person as the "right person" to lynch. Whereas, had someone with connections and importance to them been caught committing the same crime (or alleged crime) as the African American, that person was almost certain not to be lynched because of their connections. Also, one of the remarkable things about the story of Jesus is that there are occasions when he had the opportunity to make powerful connections, but he chose not to. He was able to see past the acclaimed importance of connections, and to recognize that in reality, connections can only take one so far in life, and that everything beyond them is something that one must come to terms with on their own.