Paul Lazzaro
A vindictive prisoner who treats revenge as a lifelong obligation.
To punish every perceived injury and fulfill his promise to Roland Weary.
The book
At a glance
- American POW
- Avenge Weary
- Arranges violence through others
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeLazzaro is small, hard-faced, and proud of his willingness to arrange cruelty indirectly. He listens to Weary’s accusation and decides Billy must die.
His later success in arranging the assassination makes revenge one of the few promises the novel allows to unfold in a straight line.
How the book draws them
- Small hard-faced manPhysical size does not soften his menace.
- Prisoner’s clothingThe wartime context stays visible.
- Vindictive stareHe treats resentment as certainty.
- Compressed postureAnger is held tightly.
- Close engraved bustNo weapon or violent action appears.
- Muted plum accentThe color separates him from the military blues.
Lazzaro survives the war and later arranges Billy’s assassination during a public speech.
If you like Slaughterhouse-Five
If you like Kurt Vonnegut
Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.
View author
Martha Gellhorn
War correspondent who covered the Spanish Civil War, D-Day, and conflicts across five more decades; Hemingway's third wife, 1940–1945.
View author
Ernest Hemingway
Author of The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast; his pared-down style, developed in 1920s Paris, became the most imitated in American prose.
View author