Slaughterhouse-Five Day 3 – Chapters 2-4

Unstuck in Time – The Concept “Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren’t necessarily fun” (Vonnegut 23). “They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one” (27).

Billy Pilgrim His job His family. So it goes. As a soldier – description on 32 “Billy stood politely giving the marksman another chance” (33). Kicks and yells in his sleep 78-9 The Radio Show – “He was doing nothing less now, he thought, than prescribing corrective lenses for Earthling souls” (29). Didn’t protest Vietnam, serenity prayer - 60 “Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy Pilgrim would find himself weeping” (61).

Unstuck in Time – The Hosts With your pod, create a quick poster showing Billy’s Tralfamadorian hosts. Maybe even brain-vibe out a quote for us. Description – pg 26 Explanation of “So it goes.” – pg 27 Billy’s abduction – pgs 75-76 “I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will” (86).

S5 Journal 2 “[S]he was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. And the crucifix went up on the wall of Billy Pilgrim” (39).

Unstuck in Time – The Visits With your pod, begin a chart tracking the visits Billy made while unstuck in time. Focus on what he was doing, what it tells us about him, and why this moment may have been visited. Youth – Swimming Lessons 1944 – War 1957 – Lyons Club election 1961 – Drunk at a work party 1965 – Mother in nursing home, Slovik the coward 1967 – Falls asleep while giving an eye exam, abducted and so on…

Vonnegut as a Character “I was there. So was my old war buddy, Bernard V. O’Hare” (67). Why do you think Vonnegut put himself there? What effect does this have on …the book? …the reader?

Differing Perspectives of WWII Night was written from the perspective of a Jew in WWII, Slaughterhouse-Five was written by an American soldier. What similarities and/or differences have you seen thus far related to the retelling of the war? Boxcars (and the painting/markings), German propaganda (pics of Billy’s feet), Princess the borrowed dog, camps, etc. “When food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared” (70).

Remembering Mary O’Hare Where in these chapters do you find influences from Vonnegut’s earlier conversation with Mary O’Hare? How are the combatants of this war often portrayed?

S5 Journal 3 “Nobody talked. Nobody had any good war stories to tell” (55). “The people who lived here hated it so much that they had burned down a lot of it a month before. It was all they had, and they’d wrecked it” (59). About Ilium, not war…