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.