SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5

QUESTION 1 (BOOK INFO)

• I read Slaughterhouse 5
• The author is Kurt Vonnegut Jr
• I choose this book because the synopsis I found made the book seem interesting and fun to read

QUESTION 2 (DID I LIKE THE BOOK)

• This book didn't quite live up to the standards I had
• The main setting kept jumping from one place to another because the main character, Billy Pilgrim, was a time traveller
• Also, the events that occurred in the book never happened in chronological order

QUESTION 3 (CHARACTERS)

• Name: Billy Pilgrim
• Physical description: in his war years he was scrawny and had little to no muscle. He wasn't even a real soldier, he was a chaplain's assisstsnt
• Personality details: nice in his early and middle aged years, then when he comes out about time-traveling he becomes a crazy psychopath, trying to get anyone to believe him
• Relationship with other main characters: all other supporting characters exist only as they relate to Billy's experience of events. Examples include: Roland Weary (a prisonery of war along with Billy) Paul Lazzaro (another prisoner of war who is responsible for Billy's death because he wanted to avenge Ronald Weary)

QUESTION 3 (CONT)

• Like I said before, there was only one main character, but here is some background on Roland Weary, the main supporting character
• Physical description: tall and muscular, more like a real solider
• Personality details: stupid and imaginative: envisions himself and two comrades as the "Three Musketeers" (his comrades eventually are killed by the Germans. So it goes.)
• Relationship with other main characters: Billy Pilgrim's friend and companion in the German prison
• Weary eventually dies from blood loss

QUESTION 4 (SETTINGS)

• The first main setting is at the end of World War II (1942-1945)
• The second main setting was in the late 1950s, when Billy was a optometrist in Ilium
• The third main setting was in the late 1960s, when Billy gets captured by the Tralfamadorians (aliens) and becomes "unstuck in time": he can travel through any point in his lifetime

QUESTION 5 (START OF BOOK)

• The book starts off with Billy's birth in 1922. He grows up in the town of Ilium. He does well in high school and then enrolls in night classes at the Ilium School of Optometry. He then is drafted into WWII and becomes a chaplain's assistant

QUESTION 6 (EXTERNAL CONFLICT)

• The main external conflict of this book is how would Billy communicate that he has become "unstuck in time?"
• At first Billy tries to tell the world, writing letters and making tape recordings. He even goes on a radio station and claims that he is a time traveler. In the end, Billy learns to cope with this and accepts being a time traveler

QUESTION 7 (INTERNAL CONFLICT)

• The main internal conflict in the novel is whether Billy considers himself to be insane or not.
• "He knew he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to Valencia, when he begged her to be his companion for life." (107)
• From the moment when he was captured by the Tralfamadorians, Billy knew he was crazy. He only confirmed his suspicions when he started to try and tell the world that he was a time-traveler.
• Being a time traveler helped him to accept the fact that everything he did was insane and out of the ordinary, helping him resolve this conflict and learn to accept being insane.

QUESTION 8 (BOOK TITLE INFO)

• The books title, Slaughterhouse 5, clarifies the phrase "so it goes" that is used in every mention of death or hardship.
• The title helps to communicate that death and hardship is just a part of life
• When Billy Pilgrim dies, he only feels death for a couple seconds and then is transported to another moment in his life
• The Tralfamadorians taught Billy that they see time as a mountain. In that point your body wasn't living but on all these other points you are alive and well

QUESTION 9 (QUOTE AND INFO)

• "Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." (76-77)
• A Tralfamadorian said this quote.
• Billy was being captured by the Tralfamadorians and was asking questions like: Why me?
• It reveals the central them in this book which is that everything that happens has happened, does happen, and will happen no matter who, what, where, how, or why it happened.
• So it goes.