"One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from becoming characters. but old Derby was a character now." pg 164
This is a more depressing view of what veterans experience after war. But it makes sense. They are so trodden down, beaten up, and demoralized by war that sometimes they come home almost empty. When you are a prisoner of war, like Billy was, making yourself more noticeable than other POWs was a bad idea. If you attract attention, you could get killed. So it's best to blend in and keep your head down in order to survive. So if you came home after months, years even of trying to save your skin by avoiding attention, it would be hard to go back to normal. Your personality, or character might end up a little repressed due to wartime trauma. This condition could explain why Billy was so reluctant to talk when he was in the veteran's hospital. He was so used to being a nobody that he didn't know how to be a somebody again.
I think that this is a great example of the theme of the destructiveness of war.When Vonnegut says that "people are discouraged from becoming character," I think that shows how much easier it is not to get involved. People around you are going to die, so there is little point in getting to know them. It's easier to just be a "background character."
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