Chapter 9
"Billy and five other American prisoners were riding in a coffin-shaped green wagon, which they had found abandoned, complete with two horses, in a suburb of Dresden." (page 193-194)
The coffin wagon that Billy and the five other American prisoners were riding in points to the symbolic death of soldiers who survived the war. It is the death of innocence. They cannot forget what they saw during the time they served. They cannot forget the slaughter of thousands or the destruction of Dresden. They will always remember it, and they will never innocent ever again.
You present a really interesting idea here. I had thought of it as symbolic of just the death of the war victims, not of the survivors' innocence. Once innocence is lost, it can never be regained.
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