In SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE (1969), an absurdist novel about the firebombing of Dresden in World War II, the senseless chatter of a bird represents the incomprehensible futility of war. What questions could we ask that would yield satisfactory answers? Can anything truly explain or justify the consequences of war? Kurt Vonnegut conveys the impossibility of the inquiries by using a bird to say that which cannot be conveyed in human terms.