Honors Modern Fiction

Slaughterhouse – Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Study Guide

Instructions: Please respond specifically to the following. Citing page numbers will help you in the long run. (Trust me, it’s exceedingly difficult to find something you want to cite from this novel once you’re through reading it!)

Chapter 1

  1. Why might Vonnegut want us to know that “all this happened, more or less” (1)?
  2. Examine the information provided in the following excerpts. Then, identify the tone that Vonnegut establishes and identify the other elements of voice (diction, detail, syntax, imagery) that contribute to it:

I really did go back to Dresden with Guggenheim money (God love it) in 1967. It looked a lot like Dayton, Ohio, more open spaces than Dayton has. There must be tons of human bone meal in the ground. (1)

But things were much better now. [Gerhard Mueller] has a pleasant little apartment, and his daughter was getting an excellent education. His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire storm. So it goes. (1-2)

  1. Vonnegut seems to imply that machines have a destructive effect on humans. How does the situation with the veteran in the elevator make that implication? Find the quote that relates the idea of machinery to the massacre of war. Be sure to include the page number.

4.  Vonnegut makes several references to clocks and time in Chapter 1. List at least three (3) of them here. What point do you think he’s making about time?

  1. What point does Mary O’Hare make about war stories? What is Vonnegut’s reaction?
  2. What point does Vonnegut make in his analogy to Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot’s wife?

7.  Based upon this chapter, would we characterize Vonnegut as a Master Soul or a Slave Soul? Defend your response with specific reference(s) to the text.

Chapter 2

  1. What do the names "Billy" and "Pilgrim" suggest?
  2. Vonnegut’s syntax tends to be short and choppy, with lots of subject-verb simple sentences. (Y’know, the kind English teachers discourage students from using. J) What does his syntax emphasize or underscore about his purpose(s)?
  3. Explain what it means to be “unstuck in time.”
  4. As we read the novel, we will begin to notice the repetition of the phrase, “So it goes” whenever a death is mentioned. What is the effect of this device? What is the author’s intention?
  5. In Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut makes use of motifs---repeated images, symbols, or ideas----which subtly connect characters, events, episodes, etc. Find at least two of these associations thus far and explain what connects to what. Cite page numbers for your own reference. Can you infer the author’s intention in his use of this literary technique?
  6. What do the Tralfamadorians look like, and how is this satiric?
  7. Vonnegut presents a satiric view of organized religion. Where do we see this perspective in chapter 2, and what does Vonnegut’s point seem to be?
  8. Vonnegut once said that characterization is practically non-existent in this novel. What do you think he meant? Give an example from chapter 2.
  9. The moment when Billy becomes “unstuck in time” on page 43 is significant. Discuss the possible interpretation(s) surrounding this episode.
  10. On page 49, Vonnegut tells us that what happened to Billy “wasn’t time travel. It had never happened, would never happen. It was the craziness of a dying young man with his shoes full of snow.” Why is this passage important?

Chapter 3

  1. Slaughterhouse-Five is filled with different forms of irony, often sarcastic. Irony is a subtly humorous inconsistency. Give at least one example of verbal irony in the third chapter, and an example of structural irony from the book at large.
  2. Stream of consciousness is a technique that writers use to duplicate the thinking process of people. We think in process of association; one-idea triggers another thought, which in turn reminds us of something else and so on. How is Vonnegut using the technique of stream of consciousness with Billy? Give an example of the process of association in Billy’s thinking.
  3. Find an example that reinforces Vonnegut’s idea that machines are dangerous for humans.
  4. Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five at the height of the Vietnam War. Thematic links appear in this chapter. Cite them and explain how Billy’s reaction to them differs from Vonnegut’s.
  5. Point out some references to water in this chapter and explore their metaphoric function. Keep context in mind as you interpret!
  6. Because the purpose of satire is to ridicule or scorn, the reader or viewer of such a work may feel little sympathy for characters, events, etc., and Vonnegut’s lack of characterization should only enhance this effect. Nevertheless, Vonnegut sometimes evokes more than just anger and hate in Slaughterhouse-Five. Give an example of a moment when we are expected to feel something like sympathy or pity for a character. How does Vonnegut make us feel these emotions, in spite of the irony and flat characterization?

Chapter 4

  1. Where do we see people “spooning” in Chapters 3 and 4? Why does Vonnegut create this association?
  2. What are some images of innocence, or Eden, featured in this chapter?
  3. On page 74, Billy, while slightly “unstuck in time,” watches a television movie about a World War II bombing raid, only he views the movie in reverse. Explain the meaning of this passage in the context of your developing understanding of the book.
  4. How would you describe the morality of the Tralfamadorians, as they are depicted on pages 76 and 77?
  5. Chapter 4 features many images of entrapment.
  6. What are they?
  7. What is the significance of these images?
  8. Why are so many images of entrapment the same as images of innocence? What is Vonnegut’s point?
  9. Some literary critics see Billy as a Christ figure. Why? What do you think of this interpretation?

Chapter 5

  1. Reread the description of the Tralfamadorian book. In your own words, explain what the structure of a Tralfamadorian novel is like and how Vonnegut is writing a book in this style.
  2. On page 91 an American prisoner asks his Russian guard, “Why me?” The guard responds, “Vy you? Vy anybody?” Explain the significance of this exchange.
  3. What irony do you see in the situation with the English POWs?
  4. List some references to light and darkness in Chapter 5 and explain how these symbols might connect to themes in the novel.
  5. On page 101, Vonnegut tells us Billy and his friend Rosewater both found life meaningless after their experiences in the war. Both were “trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science Fiction was a big help.” One of the themes that emerges in Slaughterhouse-Five is deception as a means of survival, fiction as a means of making sense. Human beings reinvent themselves, and escape despair---often through their fabrications. Art is such a fabrication. Where is this theme scene in Chapter 5?
  6. Before he was a novelist, Vonnegut was a scientist. He studied biology, chemistry, mechanical engineering, and anthropology. He enjoyed the company of scientists. His brother was a well-known physicist. Einstein’s theories were some of the hottest topic sin science circles in Vonnegut’s day. How might those theories relate to Slaughterhouse-Five?
  7. How does Billy’s habitat in the Tralfamadorian zoo reflect the Eden motif?
  8. How is Billy’s life on Tralfamadore similar to the one he had/might have on Earth? Cite specific similarities of experiences and surroundings. What is Vonnegut suggesting about Billy’s state of mind by incorporating these similarities?
  9. How is the satiric treatment of religion, specifically Christianity, further developed in this chapter?
  10. How are women portrayed in this chapter? How is Mary O'Hare a foil for them?

Chapter 6

  1. What portrait of politics and political leaders does Vonnegut present in this chapter?
  2. Many critics say Billy Pilgrim could be a literary allusion to The Pilgrim’s Progress, a famous 17th century allegory by John Bunyan. In what ways is the novel like an allegory?
  3. What is the ironic significance of the novel’s title Slaughterhouse – Five?

Chapter 7

  1. How does Vonnegut want us to feel about the people of Dresden? Explain, using examples from the text.
  2. Explain Vonnegut’s purpose in the statement, “Everything was pretty much all right with Billy” (157).
  3. At the beginning of the chapter Vonnegut tells us that Lionel Merble “was a machine.” Vonnegut then adds: “Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the Universe is a machine.” Why is Merble a machine? Do you see evidence one way or another in this chapter to suggest that Billy is a machine?
  4. In an earlier chapter we were told that death, to the Tralfamadorians, is only a sort of hum, a comforting background sound. Vonnegut artfully has inserted in this chapter a variation on that hum. Explain the symbolism employed by Vonnegut.
  5. What is symbolized by the syrup on page 160?

Chapter 8

  1. Explain the symbolic purpose of the character Howard W. Campbell, Jr.
  2. We have seen that Vonnegut periodically interjects himself into the narrative with commentary. One example at the top of page 164 is especially important. Explain.
  3. Explain the character of Kilgore Trout in relation to the themes and other characters of the book.
  4. Discuss the effect of the barbershop music on Billy in this chapter.
  5. Is the underground meat locker in slaughterhouse 5 a phallic or a yonic image? Then, discuss the significance of the image and the Americans’ survival of the bombing in light of this symbolism.
  6. Discuss the symbolism of the scene at the inn, with the blind innkeeper and his wife, and the treatment of the Americans, in light of developing motifs and themes in the book. Consider, in particular, religious allusions and the fact of the innkeeper’s blindness.

Chapter 9

  1. Vonnegut uses Rumfoord’s research, juxtaposed with Billy’s personal experience, as a literary device to view the Dresden firebombing and the Hiroshima bombing from several moral and political perspectives. Explain.
  2. On rare occasions throughout the novel, Billy rises above his listlessness, albeit just barely. Cite one such example in Chapter 9.
  3. Billy’s “rebellion,” however, also takes a pathetic turn in this chapter. Explain.
  4. How is the prayer that Montana wears around her neck symbolic? Where have we seen this prayer before in the novel?

Chapter 10

  1. Why are the Tralfmadorians more interested in Darwin than Jesus? What is Vonnegut’s tone in the line, “Charles Darwin, who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements” (210)?
  2. How does the narrative point of view change in the last chapter? What is the effect of this literary strategy?
  3. On page 213, Vonnegut tells us, “Prisoners of war from many lands came together that morning” to begin digging for corpses. A Maori (a person of Polynesian origin who lives in New Zealand) works side by side with Billy Pilgrim. What is Vonnegut’s meaning/ purpose in providing us with this information?
  4. Why do you think Vonnegut juxtaposes Edgar Derby’s death with the descriptions of the corpse mines? What do both images represent?
  5. What is Vonnegut’s purpose in using the bird’s poo-tee-weet to end the novel?
  6. Do you believe this conclusion to be responsible or irresponsible? Explain and support your thinking.

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