Diction

In Slaughterhouse-Five, there are several characters who posses many grisly and flat-out messed up thoughts. They are very gruesome and often fantasize about murder and destruction.  Ronald Weary from the earlier chapters, for example, demonstrated a man who, one could tell, has a desire for violence.  We start to see these traits develop in Lazzaro as well.  We see it in his dialogue as Vonnegut writes, "Now Lazzaro's eyes twinkled. 'Blood started coming out of his mouth.  He started crying, and he rolled on the ground, as though the knives were on the outside of him instead of on the inside of him.  Then he tried to bite out his own insides.  I laughed, and I said to him you got the right idea now.  Tear your own guts out, boy.  That's me in there with all those knives.'" (139)  The strong, violent image of flat out torture of his own dog is unsettling to the reader, but it gives us a good idea of the kind of person Lazzaro truly is.