Slaughterhouse Five Chapter 10 Post 2 of 2 (Final Post)

     The novel Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, is an unconventional novel that throws the structure of normal stories out the window. In the final chapter Vonnegut gives his last plea and convincing argument while presenting the everlasting importance and driving factor that is dignity. One could even say that dignity is a problem, but moreover a struggle. Every human being wants and strives for dignity. We impress our friends, work for money, refuse a free handout, and continue to keep our dignity. Dignity is a supremely positive thing. It is the catalyst for renaissance in society. The pure equalizer of death however, places dignity at a premium. In Pilgrim's case he must travel from his current existence, tripping through time and living on Tralfamadoria to develop his own unique dignity. Vonnegut explains his own thought: will there ever be a sufficient supply of dignity on earth? Every individual is always searching and keeping dignity; however, some are always having a lack of dignity. In an interesting way, Vonnegut describes dignity as a resource like water that could run out or be refilled. Vonnegut's question though, like the bird's song, cannot be answered.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 10 Post 1 of 2

      "Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, 'Poo-tee-weet?'," (Vonnegut, 215). The silence of post-massacre is broken by one bird. The silence is also broken by Vonnegut. Vonnegut has filled in the silence of post-war with his words of the book. This one bird, with the unanswerable question, "Poo-tee-weet?" This bird is a symbol of the emptiness after a war. The bird and its question symbolize the warning Vonnegut gave at the beginning of the novel: there is nothing intelligent to say about a war. This bird calls to break that post-war hypnotism, yet it cannot be broken. The memories of war will always stay their. In summation, the bird's odd song symbolizes the forever, yet unquenchable aftermath of war and a massacre.  

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 9 Post 2 of 2

     Vonnegut, the opinionated and political author that he is, fills his novel with his ideas and subliminal messages to his readers through his symbolism. In chapter nine, he makes a point that I find myself in agreement. The character Professor Rumfoord does not want to hear Billy's account of having been in the bombing and war in Dresden because he does not want to hear the negative and grim account that Pilgrim will recall. When this historian refuses this account, it makes us realize that our conception of what happens in history is shaped by the people who record the accounts. In the novel, people do not know of the horrific loss of civilians in Dresden and this little worm professor will keep it that way. Vonnegut presses this fact up to our mind's in this chapter, and it makes sense. Granted, with modern technology now the facts are more accessible; however, true facts back then and now are lost in the filters and political egos of writers. Ten times out of ten I would rather hear Billy Pilgrim's honest account.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 9 Post 1 of 2

     In chapter nine, Vonnegut really makes the reader doubt what is real and what is a fictional delusion in the tales involving Billy Pilgrim. However, Vonnegut does this in rather a comical or rather ridiculing way. Vonnegut uses his dark satire in chapter nine in order to change the way history is passed down. In the novel Rumfoord is presented as wanting to present the history of the Dresden bombing in a tinted light. Rumfoord does not want to listen to Billy's real life account; by satirizing the character of Rumfoord by making him seem dishonest and slithering. By using his satire, Vonnegut is ridiculing the shortcomings of his characters to bring about a change of how history is recorded. A prime example of Vonnegut's satiric voice is in a description of the historian author Rumfoord: "Professor Rumfoord said frightful things about Billy within Billy's hearing, confident that Billy no longer had any brain at all," (Vonnegut, 190). By this unfavorable description, Vonnegut is asking that the accounts of history are tainted and yet the youth of this world read to believe those accounts.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 8 Post 2 of 2

      Chapter eight serves as the awakening of Billy Pilgrim. In this chapter, Billy Pilgrim is in the peak of his sanity. Pilgrim is able to recall and remember events, as well as let them flow back into his mind, without the need for time travel. Another interesting detail is how Billy is constantly trying to help humanity understand and help with his out publicity on teachings from Tralfamadorians and such. However, in chapter eight Vonnegut allows Pilgrim to really get something going on the right track for once. Pilgrim really discovers that he had been restraining and keeping himself a secret from himself. Billy now can explore, not another facet of time, but a facet of his own person. In addition, he is able to make relationships. Walking in on his son playing a guitar in the bathroom, "Billy liked him [Robert], but didn't know him very well...Billy flicked on the light...He was wearing an electric guitar, slung around his neck," (Vonnegut, 176). This shows that for the first time, he was learning about his son and developing relationships.
    This "awakening" of Billy Pilgrim is applicable to people in the world today. Many people, extremely career oriented or lusting after financial surplus, can and will get lost in their jobs and forget the ability to sustain relationships. Even in Billy's case, one can lose themselves or hide themselves from the true them. The unforgiving, fast-paced world can make these problems occur very rapidly. Billy Pilgrim is able to finally snap out of this stream in this chapter and at this moment in his life.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 8 Post 1 of 2

     Chapter eight poses a monumental transformation within the character Billy Pilgrim. This change in an important way as a result of the story's action makes Pilgrim a dynamic character. The main dynamics in this chapter are the abilities Pilgrim shows that demonstrates his sanity. For the first time in the novel Billy did not have to time travel to recall events: "Billy thought hard about the effect the quartet had had on him, and then found an association with an experience he had had long ago. He did not travel in time to experience," (Vonnegut, 177). This achievement is definitely proof that Billy Pilgrim is a dynamic character of the novel. Pilgrim is finally able to think clearly and create associations with past events without having to travel. In addition, he is finally able to talk about the war. Earlier he could not talk to his wife when she asked; however, with the Tralfamadorians, he is able to speak of Dresden when Montana Wildhack asks him to tell her a story.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 7 Post 2 of 2

     In chapter seven of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim gets in the not so sudden plane crash. This crash leads to him getting a fractured skull, and ultimately going on a myriad of frenetic time jumps. These flash trips in time give the reader multiple glimpses at different Billy Pilgrims. In this case, Vonnegut almost is giving the reader clues and pieces of this character. Rather than giving character descriptions, Vonnegut give experiences and actions Billy Pilgrim does to indirectly characterize Pilgrim. This way of compilation creates the "real" Billy Pilgrim.
    Throughout all of his time trips and flashbacks the reader sees things that are unique to that specific place in time; however, those are not to be focused on. One must string the similarities of the different Pilgrims to assemble the true Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut's odd but truthful way of characterizing adds to the authenticity of the character a midst the science fiction persona. Even in the end of Pilgrim's life the real Billy is not present: "So Billy experiences death for a while...Not even Billy Pilgrim is there," (Vonnegut, 143). This furthers the point of ones self in entirety is not present at one point in there life, even death.
   The glimpses in time can actually help one look at his/her own life or people ones met. One must look at that person in a whole rather than who they are in a specific year. In truth, what one person is at that moment in time is not a true barometer of who they are in their life.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 7 Post 1 of 2

     The book's main character Billy Pilgrim presents characterization in a new light. This round character, which has multiple dimensions to his personality, is described in the novel by four points: the three spatial dimensions and time. Vonnegut not only describes how Billy is, but when he is like that. This full understanding of Billy Pilgrim as a whole gives him the depth to be a round character. What bolsters his identity is Pilgrim's time tripping. Zipping in and out of periods of time gives the reader a full understanding of Pilgrim and his many dimensions. In chapter seven, "he dreamed millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time-travel," (Vonnegut, 157). Pilgrim's rapid trips through time after the plane crash allow for, in one chapter, the reader to get a good horizon on Billy's round character qualities and compile them to start to understand this character.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 6 Post 2 of 2

      Billy Pilgrim wakes up in chapter six after spending the night pumped up on morphine. He awakes very fatigued and sore, but he feels a strange "pull" coming behind him. Pilgrim describes it as, "animal magnetism which made him shiver and itch," (Vonnegut, 136). This odd description of "animal magnetism" gives it the feel of a living power. The lumps were pea-shaped and a small horseshoe shape. This new discoveries bring up many questions since they "could work miracles for him." The only catch around them is that he could not inquire what these beastly objects were.
      The lumps in Billy's coat are put there by Vonnegut for more of a morality lesson rather than usefulness. Not able to inquire about the living, animal trinkets makes for a very inhuman response from Billy who is complacent with not knowing. Even today, all living things share a curiosity as an inborn instinct. Vonnegut describes the forces like an animal; however, these lumps require oneself to destroy the living or beastly quality of curiosity and knowledge. The polarity and contradiction associated with the lumps in Billy's coat makes one wonder if it is better to break the rules to discover the truth.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 6 Post 1 of 2

      Chapter five of Slaughterhouse really starts to get heavy within the plot and brings up a very interesting allusion. An allusion is a, often indirect, reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, or other branch of culture. In Slaughterhouse-Five, the allusion is brought by the odd, magical lumps in Pilgrim's coat. The lumps allude to the biblical story of Lot's wife from chapter one. Vonnegut read the Gideon Bible and about the destruction of Gomorrah and Sodom which spoke of Lot's wife's actions and conviction. In the biblical story, Lot's wife is able to take a lasting glance at the destruction of the cities but only to be turned into a pillar of salt. Lot's wife knows the punishment but looks back anyway. A counterpoint to this is Billy Pilgrim. He was directed not to look at the magnetizing lumps and was O.K. with that. At first discovery, "He was told not to find out what the lumps were...they could work miracles for him, provided he did not insist on learning their nature. That was all right with Billy Pilgrim," (Vonnegut, 137) The event of the lumps alludes back to this biblical story.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 5 Post 2 of 2

       Kurt Vonnegut as the author of Slaughterhouse-Five has done something extremely rare to see in a non-autobiographical piece: he has made himself a character in his own book. Not as the main character, Vonnegut put himself as a minor character that often finds himself in very unfavorable situations. In the later half of chapter five, Vonnegut appears, "excreting everything but his brains;" then addresses himself saying, "That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book," (Vonnegut, 125). 
      Vonnegut places himself in this book because its themes and story line share a strong connection to his life. In all the accounts of war, Vonnegut is speaking of his own experiences of war. Interestingly, Vonnegut has Billy Pilgrim be the main character of this book, while he only inserts himself in small pockets. Vonnegut was the drunken caller with the mustard gas breath and then again here in chapter five as a sickly fool in a latrine. 

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 5 Post 1 of 2

    Slaughterhouse-Five presents an ongoing and very important motif throughout the novel but which going  mainly in chapter five. A motif is a recurring phrase or idea used throughout a work, unifying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to a theme. In Slaughterhouse, the motif present is "so it goes." Learned from the Tralfamadorians, Pilgrim then incorporates this into his own thinking. The motif is exemplified in this excerpt, "Before they got their names and numbers in that book, they were missing in action and probably dead. So it goes," (Vonnegut, 91).
    The "so it goes" mentality really advocates that the deceased is only dead in that point in time because that is how it is structured. In other fragments of their life and in time, they are alive. The Tralfamadorians do not get sad about this because the understand this way of thinking. This motif really connects with the theme of free will. Saying "so it goes" is basically saying that that is how destiny goes and their is nothing one can do to break the mold or change it. This connection makes it a substantial motif in Slaughterhouse-Five. 

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 4 Post 2 of 2

      Chapter four opens with Billy Pilgrim wandering around his house at night and the phone ringing: "Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath-- mustard gas and roses. It was the wrong number," (Vonnegut, 73). This familiar mustard gas and rose combination comes back from chapter one. In fact, the drunk seems to align with Vonnegut from chapter one. Vonnegut makes drunken calls at night and Billy received one on this night of his kidnapping. Pilgrim said that he could almost smell mustard gas and roses. This odd combination seems to have a greater significance then a breath description.

      The mustard gas, which is used as a chemical weapon, highlights the war part of the novel. The roses seem to draw in a gentle, even romantic ties. With both of these infused in Vonnegut, the drunk's, breath, it shows that the war has affected his life deeply. In addition, it also has affected his relationship and family.  

     

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 4 Post 1 of 2

       In chapter four, a very accurate and interesting analogy is made. The analogy, a comparison made between two things to show their similarity, is made between Pilgrim's time jumping and a blob of amber. The Tralfamadorians say that the moment in time Pilgrim is like a bug in amber; it simply exists. When the aliens say, "It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber," (Vonnegut, 86), it clearly depicts the analogy Vonnegut had procured in this literary work. The structure that is time, and everything moving along within it, simply exists, different at every moment.

Slaughter-House Five Chapter 3 Post 2 of 2

       Slaughter-House Five's third chapter has Billy Pilgrim in a rather bad state. Pilgrim is beginning to demonstrate the hopelessness of war. He is also has shown no ability to control his time trips and did several jumps in chapter three. On one account he jumped back to working at his Optometrist practice. Pilgrim's condition was summed up by Vonnegut in this brief description, "Now Billy was starting to get worried about it, about his mind in general. He tried to remember how old he was, couldn't. He tried to remember what year it was. He couldn't remember that either," (Vonnegut, 56). This present state is very contradictory to the optimism seen in the Serenity Prayer plaque on his office wall.
      The interesting point in the Serenity Prayer that ties into the book is the line saying, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." There is an theme in Slaughterhouse about not being able to control things in life. The Serenity Prayer's words just further explain what is happening to Billy Pilgrim in this point in the novel. Pilgrim is unable to control his time tripping; therefore, life has almost become meaningless.  Rather, he needs the serenity to accept that.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 3 Post 1 of 2

      In this chapter, Vonnegut really displays the stream of consciousness style to probe and explain Billy Pilgrim's mind. Vonnegut uses the stream of consciousness to open the workings of Pilgrim's mind and his time jumping problem. Vonnegut depicts him fading in and out of events in his life, and sometimes almost simultaneously in transition. At one point, "he was simultaneously on foot in Germany in 1944 and riding his Cadillac in 1967," (Vonnegut, 58). These sometimes difficult transitions to follow for a reader are perfectly explained by Pilgrim's stream of consciousness written by Vonnegut.
     The inner workings of Billy's mind are quite complex and somewhat mysterious this early in the novel. However, the time jumping qualities are better explained by Vonnegut using this tool. By Vonnegut walking the reader through each jump, by even giving a date, helps the stream to be followed. The magnificent travel of Pilgrim occurs very 'spur of the moment', "He closed his eyes, and opened them again. He was still weeping, but he was back in Luxembourg again," (Vonnegut, 58). Vonnegut using the stream of consciousness is crucial to Slaughterhouse-Five.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 2 Post 2 of 2

     Chapter two establishes that Billy Pilgrim "has come unstuck in time...He has walked through a door in 1955 and come out another one in 1941." Pilgrim jumps around in the time stream without any control (or at least at the present moment in the novel he has no control). This idea of time travel captivates almost all readers of Vonnegut's novel. With the positives and negatives of this "power", one must think what is actually traveling the expanse of time: is it Pilgrim's body, soul, or just mind? Or on a more focused note, what is time travel?
   To the common definition, time travel is one entity leaving the time stream and re-entering at a different point; however, one can travel through time with just the power of mind. In a memory of a past event, in one's mind, they are truly there in that moment. What makes it different than the actual event? In a memory, everything pans out exactly as it occurred; moreover, the memory eliminates any free will. In Slaughterhouse- Five, it does not seem as though Billy Pilgrim changes anything when he is thrust to a different point in time. He simple lives in that moment again. This time travel event could be just a mental lapse or terrible daydream that make Pilgrim feel as though he traveled through time.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 2 Post 1 of 2

      Heading into chapter two, Vonnegut sets up the very bizarre external conflict between Billy Pilgrim and  basically his whole society. His daughter, Barbara, most openly confronts Billy about his odd opinion on his experience with extraterrestrials. The external conflict arises because Billy believes he had been abducted by Tralfamadorians and decides he wants to let all of New York know about it. Billy goes on a radio show to share his unique experience with these time-savvy creatures. As if that was not enough, Billy Pilgrim publishes letters of the account. His daughter is horrified by her father's psychotic actions and beliefs. Soon his entire society tags him as an insane man.
     Barbara displays her seriousness of the conflict by saying, "what are we going to do with you? Are you going to force us to put you where your mother is?" Vonnegut then goes to explain, "Billy's mother was still alive. She was in bed in an old people's home.." (Vonnegut, 29). The quote show that Barbara now thinks she will have to remove her father from society to solve the problem. This external conflict early on really gets Vonnegut's plot rolling. It sets up the readers intrigue on the fact that Billy Pilgrim thinks he was abducted by aliens and, later in the chapter, his mind jumps around time to add to the pandemonium.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 1 Post 2 of 2

     An interesting component Vonnegut puts into the primary chapter of Slaughterhouse is the mention of how he vows to call his book The Children's Crusade. Vonnegut vows this to make sure he does not glorify the war, or him and his fellow soldiers. I thought this was a very interesting detail. The soldiers, naive and scared as children, were blundering into war. As I was reading this my mind jumped to make a somewhat stretched connection to an interview I had recently watched. The interview was with the lead singer of the All American Rejects, Tyson Ritter. Ritter was speaking about the band's new record and with regard to its meaning. Ritter said that it was about the metamorphosis from a kid to an adult. This detail that really struck me is how Ritter said that even as an adult, their are times when you revert back to that childish or naive way of life.
    Ritter then elaborated of the time in his life when he moved out to Los Angeles and got caught up in poisonous temptations. Growing up in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Ritter had not really been exposed to the wickedness of a large city. Ritter said that when he moved out there he was like a kid again, with no inhabitions. This can be related to Vonnegut's title of book The Children's Crusade in the regard that him and his fellow comrades had never experienced that war. Therefore, as they ventured into the battlefield, it was like they were an unknowing, unrestrained kid again. Though the relationship between war and LA are very different and the comparison is somewhat crude, the overall principles are the same. Tyson Ritter's experience does not represent a different lesson than Vonnegut's crusade in SH 5.

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 1 Post 1 of 2

      Vonnegut immediately indicates his unique style in this opening chapter. The book opens more as an autobiography rather than a fiction novel. Vonnegut utilizes this style to demonstrate his insane involvement in this literary pierce. He places this autobiographical taste in ones mouth by saying, "I really did go back to Dresden with Guggenheim money (God love it) in 1967. It looked a lot like Dayton, Ohio..." (Vonnegut, 1). Vonnegut uses common relations and small, humorous opinions that immediately draw the reader into the novel and ultimately Vonnegut's overall style of writing.
     By focusing in on the quote, three stylistic points can be extracted from Vonnegut's early words. First Vonnegut emphasizes his actions by saying, "I really did go back to Dresden..." It is almost as if Vonnegut thinks the reader doubts his immediate explanation in the first couple sentences of the novel. This is a good example of Vonnegut's unique style. Second, on looks at his personalized excerpt: "(God love it)." This humorous note continues to bolster the autobiographical feel. The third point of Vonnegut's style from the above quote is his reference to Dayton. In everyday conversation, when one explains an event to his/her listener, one always makes references to a well known place to allow for a more accurate image. Vonnegut's reference keeps true to his personal style.

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