"Poo-tee-weet?"

Vonnegut yet again can be applauded for his writing style. He ends the story in a very ingenious way: "One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, 'Poo-tee-weet'" (215). Ending with this rhetorical question leaves the reader to interpret the end how he or she wants. Vonnegut wants us the readers to think and reflect on all that happend in this story. Vonnegut doesn't answer all the questions the readers would desire to be answered. He leaves them to their own imaginations and let them wonder.

Frame Story

As this book comes to an end, I can now talk about how Vonnegut uses the frame story approach. In chapter 1 and 10, the setting and point of view is different than the rest of the book.  In these chapters we see Vonnegut and his friend O'Hare talking, instead of hearing the narration of the story of Billy Pilgrim. For instance they are talking on a plane ride saying; "O'Hare and I had never expected to make any money--and here we were now extremely well-to-do" (211-12). These two chapters are very different but help to tie the story together. Vonnegut uses the frame story with a very keen writers touch to transition in and out of his wretched war book. Just another of his many expert skills in writing that make him so adored.

A Prayer of Serenity

Chapter 9 brings a reappearance of the Serenity Prayer. In chapter three Billy recalls it in his office on a plaque. Now in chapter 9 we see it reappear when Billy sees a "silver chain around Montana Wildhack's neck.  Hanging from it, between her breasts, was a locket containing a photograph of her alcoholic mother--a grainy thing, soot and chalk.  It could have bee anybody.  Engraved on the outside of the locket were these words:  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to know the difference." This reminds Billy of the all too true idea that he cannot change the past, present, or future. This is a keen recapitulation of the entire novel. As the Tralfamadorians say, It will happen, always has happened, and always will happen.

An Obviously Stated Epigraph

Chapter 9 brings to the reader the epigraph of the novel. Vonnegut very explicitly points out "the epigraph of this book is the quatrain from the famous Christmas Carol...
The cattle are lowing,
The Baby awakes.
But the little Lord Jesus
No crying he makes" (197).
Vonnegut nicely tells the reader this quatrain is the epigraph, and doesn't leave it to be questioned. This epigraph makes sense though as Billy endured many tough and gruesome times but he hardly cried. Billy like Jesus when he is awoken doesn't cry but remains at peace and tries to carry on.

An Undeserving Town, Bombed

In this chapter we encounter the bombing of Dresden that we have been anticipating for a while. In the first chapter Vonnegut makes a reference to the Bible story about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the biblical passage God rains down on the city for the vile things they had done. Thus they were deserving of destruction and chaos. As we learn in this chapter the people that were in Dresden the day of the bombing were innocent, undeserving victims. Vonnegut is able to engage the reader by making this reference and make the reader think throughout the story about this unfortunate event,

Nazism Will Be Quarantined

In the opening of this chapter we meet a character who appears to have converted to Nazism and turned from the american way. He invites many of the other Americans to join his force called 'The Free American Corps.'Derby in a very prideful moment stands up and confronts this vermin of a man. He speaks of the American ideals and how with the Russians they will "crush the disease of Nazism, which wanted to infect the whole world"(164). This indirectly characterizes Edgar Derby as a person who has very strong patriotism for his country and is strongly against Nazism. Also he uses a metaphor to compare Nazism to disease that they will eradicate. Vonnegut is able to use references to attain many goals.

Sneaking Around to Live

In this chapter the prisoners of war are working in a factory that makes a syrup-like substance. This syrupy substance is "enriched with vitamins and minerals"(160). The workers were constantly "spooning" the syrup, or sneaking spoonfuls of it. As prisoners the Americans weren't actually receiving proper nourishment and were deprived of just simple necessities like proper food. So they are forced to act like little children sneaking around trying not to get caught and hiding spoons just to survive. This reminded me of my brother trying to sneak a candy bar past my mom so he could enjoy it. But unlike the war prisoners my brother is properly fed and doesn't need to have more candy. This is a very keen idea of Vonnegut's to include this incident to explain how life was in the war.

A Grand Ole Epithet

After reading this nice brief chapter, I still found so much for the lack of length in this chapter. One thing I found was a repeated phrase to refer to Edgar Derby. While Billy was unconscious he traveled back to a time in the slaughterhouse when "he and poor old Edgar Derby were pushing an empty two-wheeled cart down a dirt lane between empty pens for animals" (157). In this quote I find an epithet describing Edgar as "poor old Edgar Derby." This phrase emphasizes that Edgar is a strong, honorable, humble, innocent old man man who is doomed to die for a small crime. Vonnegut uses this device to remind us of his characterization and to help provide a clear image of a "poor old Edgar Derby."

Use of Time Travel

In this chapter Billy Pilgrim reveals the way he will die to the reader. He knows of his own death because he has lived through it already. I find Billy's approach to time travel very peculiar. At times he uses it to avoid enduring bad times or while he sleeps. But he doesn't try to change his fate. I remember in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Hermione uses her time-turner to go back in time and save Sirius Black and the Hippogriff. If time travel was truly real, my expectation would be that everyone would try to avoid death especially being assassinated. But Billy Pilgrim is a unique character who simply accepts his fate and kinda shrugs it off.

Oh How Ironic

As  I read through chapter 6 many important things transpired. In my reading I could not overlook the dramatic irony used in this chapter. The instance that stood out to me was when the englishmen was telling Billy about Dresden. He specifically told them "'you needn't worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance'"(146). But after reading this I recalled that Vonnegut explicitly pointed out that there WAS a bombing in Dresden. Thus these poor characters don't know they are about to be bombed. But the reader knows their unfortunate fate....so it goes.

A Depressed Broke-Down Kite

This chapter was quite lengthy and I could not finish it in one sitting, but i finally have. Upon my completion of the chapter I more vividly noticed Vonnegut's use of metaphors in this chapter. I don't know if I was looking for them or just happened to notice them. Anyway, one example of these metaphors comes when Billy caught on fire. After this occurrence an Englishmen remarked "'My God – what have they done to you, lad? This isn't a man. It's a broken kite'"(97). Now we all know Billy is in fact human and not a damaged flying object. In this reference though Vonnegut is explaining the depressed state Billy is enduring. As a time traveler he already knows of his destiny and cannot change it; all he can do is wait for it to occur at the proper moment.

Hail, Hail the Gangs All Here

As I continue to read through this very long chapter, Chapter 5, I'm going to blog about one reference i came across that I thought peculiar to be in this book. Vonnegut includes this reference "Out marched fifty middle-aged Englishman. They were singing 'Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here' from the Pirates of Penzance"(93). At first I simply overlooked this small song lyric, but I then began to think that the Pirates of Penzance wasn't popular to Englishmen in that period. This song was a rewrite of original song and become popular to Americans in around 1917. Vonnegut clearly includes this to see if the reader is paying attention. Also this could indicate that the American prisoners could be passing some of their culture onto the Englishmen. Vonnegut is a very clever writer and definitely had a reason for putting this small reference in his "war book"

Concentration camp train rides

As I reviewed Vonnegut's explanation of the transportation that the prisoners of war endured, it reminded me of the conditions described at the Holocaust Museum when I visited there in 8th grade. For instance, Vonnegut explained how Billy "had to sleep standing up, or not sleep at all. And food had stopped coming in through the ventilators, and the days and nights were colder all the time"(79). This description relates to the  hard knock conditions all the jews encountered on the trains to concentration camps and how they were not taken care of properly. In addition many people died on both the train of the prisoners in Slaughterhouse-Five and on trains to concentration camps. Since both of these events occurred in close to the same time period this may suggest a connection between the two accounts. i think Vonnegut wanted his reader to pick up on this correlation, it may serve some purpose down the road.

Rich Imagery

As I perused back through chapter 4 i found an abundant use of imagery in similes by Vonnegut. One example would be the instance where he states "[Billy] stopped, took a swig of the dead champagne. It was like 7-Up"(75). First off this is a simile with the use of the work"like" and not a different form of figurative language. But in this explanation it relates the taste of the champagne to a drink all readers should have had an experience with, providing a way of understanding of how it tasted.

Another example would be the explanation of the "ladder that was outlined in pretty lights like a Ferris wheel"(76). By giving this simile Vonnegut engages the reader to really visualize what this ladder looks like and to see it in their minds. I applaud Vonnegut for this keen use of imagery; he effectively explains objects with it and really uses them like allusions too. There are numerous other examples of these similes which help Vonnegut tell this detail rich story, and I would not be surprised if i encountered more on this reading journey.

Avatar

As I pondered the peculiar flashes of events in this chapter i couldn't help but be reminded of a movie I saw, Avatar.

In this movie, through scientific advancements, people lay in these machines and put themselves into a body of a creature native to the planet of Pandora. In Slaughterhouse-Five Billy Pilgrim would fall asleep and venture to another time. In the movie the people in the machines had to be asleep while they were in the other creatures body. Also in the book Billy would fall asleep in one time and awaken in another. For example Billy falls asleep in the prisoner of war camp and reawakens in his optometry office with a patient. I have a feeling these events will play in later, I'll have to wait and see.

Flashback...or is it Flashforward?

During chapter three especially in the earlier pages of it, I noticed many scene changes from one time period to another. These events seemed to be a sort of flashback where he remembered events. All of these occurrences happened when he slept. When he falls asleep he would switch time periods and events. For example when he and Weary were brought in as prisoners of war he fell asleep and "traveled in time, opened his eyes, found himself staring into the glass eyes of a jade green mechanical owl"(56). It is explained that he is in his optometry office with a patient. After awhile "Billy closed his eyes. When he opened them he was back in World War Two again"(58). This method Vonnegut uses to give the reader background on the character is ingenious. He uses the character's dreams to explain how he lives. I'm not sure these would be quite considered flashbacks since they occur in the future. But in this context they do, as all these events occurred before Vonnegut wrote the book. I'm sure I will see plenty more of these clever scenes as I continue reading.

The Chronicles of Tralfamadore

When i was reading this chapter, I couldn't help but notice the similarity of the situation Billy was in to the one that Lucy Pevensie endured in the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Like Lucy, Billy leaves the earth in some manner and travels to another "world." While both characters are gone time seems to pause on earth and in the 'other world' years could go by while no time elapses on earth. Additionally when Billy returns, no one believes his story of the creatures he met and things he learned. This also is seen in The Chronicles of Narnia when Lucy initially returns and none of her siblings believe her. In Billy's case his daughter considers him senile and doesn't believe him. In Lucy's case her brothers and sister just think she is playing childish games and don't think anything of it. this further shows human ignorance and tendency to not trust. Maybe I will hear more of the land of Tralfamadore as I read on.

"So it goes"--how does it go?

As I immersed myself into chapter two I continued to notice a very repetitive use of the phrase: "So it goes." I noticed it a few times in the first chapter but it became a more prevalent motif in chapter two. It even appeared twice on one page where Vonnegut says: "Everybody was killed but Billy. So it goes. While Billy was recuperating in a hospital in Vermont, his wife died accidentally of carbon-monoxide poisoning. So it goes" (25). Some one who had read this novel before told me to watch for the phrase and upon pondering its meaning I have concluded it plays a role to show a negative feeling that he simply explains by saying 'So it goes.' He later explained this by saying that Billy picked it up from the Tralfamadorians and described that they said this phrase every time they saw a dead corpse. Thus i see it as Vonnegut's own unique way of showing that someone died without directly referencing it as thus far every time he mentions death it reappears.

A way to Begin

         As I read Chapter 1 I began to feel lost and confused. But as I analyzed what Vonnegut was trying to convey it made more sense. He is simply trying to introduce his readers into his very unique style of writing while trying to help them understand the long frustrating process he has to go through to complete this book. As I pondered this it reminds me of the exhausting process I go through to prepare my horses for show. Like Vonnegut if I would try to explain this monotonous process it would seem very confusing and unconnected. But once put together and fully understood it forms a logical sequence of preparation. Now to continue my journey....

Vonnegut's View

In this first Chapter I came to realize many things. More specifically I discovered that Vonnegut has a very personal view on this war he will tell about in this story. I found that his unique style of writing can be hard to pin down a particular point of view. At first it seems he may take a first person approach as he says: "I would hate to tell you what this lousy little book cost me in money and anxiety and time"(Vonnegut 2). But then he later talks in a third person omniscient point of view, talking about other characters as an all knowing central character. This is definitely gonna be a thrill to read.

Beginning the Journey

I am beginning to read Slaughterhouse-Five.