"Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer. So it goes." p.167
The quote above is an extended metaphor for war. The metaphor above is a book written by Trout which describes the nature of war. This is yet another one of Vonnegut's social commentaries that communicate the overall meaning of the work. In the metaphor, each part of the tree represents a part of the cycle between greed and war. Both are related and dependent upon each other to exist. The greedy people who kill each other for the fruit of the tree, in turn, end up fertilizing the tree to bear more fruit for more greedy humans to seek after. Vonnegut describes the nature of war through this metaphor, which I found very powerful and profound in meaning. Through it, he is able to communicate his own personal views on the origins of war and also the inhumanities that exist within it derived from greed.
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