In chapter one, Vonnegut was talking to an old war buddy named Bernard V. O'Hare. Vonnegut discusses a particular scene which he wants to be the climax. Vonnegut enthusiastically states "I think the climax of the story will be the execution of poor old Edgar Derby. The irony is so great. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot. And he's given a regular trial, and then he's shot by a firing squad." This scene not only demonstrates the extreme irony in Edgar Derby's trial and subsequent execution, but it also shows the irony of the war. Derby's theft of the teapot was a trivial offense and should have been treated as such. However, Derby was forced to pay the ultimate price for an inconsequential act. The war in which this took place, World War II, also pertains to the irony of paying the ultimate price for a small thing. When Hitler began to set the "Final Solution" into motion, Jewish denizens were forced to pay the ultimate price for a trivial matter: their religion. Vonnegut's description of Derby's unfortunate end could symbolize a much larger tragedy; moreover, the irony certainly describes the course of World War II.
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