What's Wrong With This Picture?

The princess sings a melodious tune.

The birds join with a "poo-tee-weet."

"What a wonderful day", she exclaims oh, so sweet.

The sun is up high, it's mid-afternoon.

Bunnies hopping here and there,

Music and laughter everyhwere.

The "poo-tee-weet" fits right in, doesn't it? But, what does "poo-tee-weet" have to do in the end of a war book? Where does it fit in the picture? Here we go again, finding irony even in the last word of the novel. Imagine the sight: "The Second World War in Europe was over. Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street. The trees were leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two horses." (PDF). And then, there's a bird saying "Poo-tee-weet?"

What does this "poo-tee-weet" mean? Outside of the novel, it's just a bird noise. In the story, it holds the whole point Vonnegut is trying to make.

After there's a war where people suffer and die, cities are destroyed, and lives are changed, birds remain the same. Having in mind the amount of irony Vonnegut uses, the poo-tee-weet is making fun of the situation. It's like the cold ice cream in the hot noodle soup. It simply isn't right.

In the beginning on the novel, Vonnegut says: "Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like 'Poo-tee-weet?'" (PDF). The question mark at the end gives the novel an inconclusive ending. It's like saying, "now what?"

Concluding, what Vonnegut is trying to get through, is that after war, everything changes except for birds. The "poo-tee-weet" is an ironic way of bringing joy to the quiet and sad image of war.