Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

Chapter 7 of Slaughterhouse-Five is by far the shortest in the book at just eight pages. However, although the chapter is short, it is still loaded with material. In fact, on just the 2nd page of the chapter, I was able to find a blog topic: a quatrain in the middle of typical text... with hilarious dialect. On page 155, I found the quote:
     "Me and Mike, ve vork in mine.
      Holy shit, ve have good time.
      Vunce a veek ve get our pay.
      Holy shit, no vork next day."
After reading this quatrain, I immediately began laughing at the idea of these men singing this song in a mine. I could then hear their distinct accent, mainly from Vonnegut's way of spelling the words, and I laughed more.
When I read this quatrain, I wondered if he was alluding to an actual song or not. After all, whenever I thought of miners singing, I always used to think of Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy from Snow White. After some brief research, I discovered that Vonnegut must have simply made up the song. From now on, I am positive that the "Me and Mike, ve vork in mine" song will now come to my mind instead of "Heigh Ho"
Vonnegut must have written this quatrain as a form of satirizing the Pennsylvanian coal miners . Again, Vonnegut displayed his mastery of conveying dialect through text, and he alsowas able to produce more humor from his book.
So, yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about that humorous quatrain. I feel like ending this blog post with a song. 7 Dwarves, take it away:

Toto, We're Not in Wyoming Anymore

While reading chapter 3 of Slaughterhouse-Five, I noticed something quite interesting on pages 66 and 67. When Vonnegut briefly introduces a new character, Wild Bob, he attempts to characterize him as a stereotypical "Average Joe" from Wyoming. The best way that Vonnegut is able to characterize Wild Bob is with his dialect.
I felt that the best example of Wild Bob's dialect was on page 67 when he says, "'God be with you, boys!' he said, and that echoed and echoed. And then he said, 'If you're ever in Cody, Wyoming, just ask for Wild Bob!'"
Now, I may be alone when I say this, but I don't think, if I am ever on my deathbed, that one of the things I would say would be, "God be with you." I would hope I would have the strength and courage to do so, but I'm not positive that this phrase will come to my head. To me, this shows a great deal about Wild Bob. Clearly, Wild Bob is extremely grounded in his faith because he had the presence of mind to ask God's blessing upon these troops while struggling for his life with pneumonia.
To be honest, I have to admit that before reading this chapter, I did not really think at all about the state of Wyoming. The only reason I really know anything about the state is from 5th grade geography, when I learned that it's a rectangular shape and its capital is Cheyenne. (Although, to be fair, Wyoming probably thinks the same about Indiana, so I guess we're even steven.)I did not even know if there was a stereotype existed about the citizens. Therefore I was really taken aback when I read Vonnegut's generalization of the Wyoming-ans (Wyominites? Wyominians? Wyomingers? Whatever it is...) as a bit of a typical "Wild Wild West" citizen. What do I mean when I say that? Gosh, I wish I knew. The people aren't uneducated, but they have a slang of leaving out verbs in sentences- example: "'You one of my boys?'" (66). The people embrace the "cowboy" lifestyle- example: the University of Wyoming's mascot is the Cowboys. And, most importantly, the people are very friendly and center the lives around God's will- a perfect example is found in the quote from page 67: "'God be with you... just ask for Wild Bob!'"
Yes, I am aware of the stereotypes I just made about all Wyoming-ans. I know they aren't all like that, and would be offended if they were reading this. However, Wild Bob fits each of these stereotypes perfectly; for example, Wild Bob looks forward to barbecuing a whole steer when he returns home, even though he is dying.
So, I guess the question is: what is Vonnegut's purpose in the quote from page 67? I think Vonnegut included the character of Wild Bob as a way of generalizing all Wyoming-ans to continue the satire of SH-5, and also because he likes to attempt to reproduce the dialect from Wyoming and add some more humor to his book.
Wild Bob, "God be with you." Rest in peace.