SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
Ch3-5 Notes
I. Chapter 3 – Summary
A. 5 German soldiers find Weary & Pilgrim
1. two are very young and beautiful
2 one is ready to retire, a “good soldier” with very shiny
3. Pilgrim sees Adam & Eve in the good soldier’s boots
B. Weary is disarmed
1. his boots are given to one of the beautiful boys
2. Weary must wear the boy’s clogs
3. both Weary and Pilgrim have inadequate footwear
C. Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time at the cottage w/the other POWs
1. he is in his optometrist’s office
2. his car’s license plate reads 1967
3. an alarm is chiming noon and he is back in WWII
D. After being filmed by a German soldier reacting his capture during WWII, Billy is back in 1967 again
1. driving his Cadillac through Ilium’s “black ghetto,” which remind him of the devastated cities he saw during WWII
2. at the Lions Club meeting, a speaker argues that US involvement in North
Vietnam is necessary
E. Pilgrim goes home to nap
1. lies on the vibrating bed, cannot sleep, only cries
2. ignores the “cripples” coming to his door to sell magazine subscriptions
3. continues to cry and is back in Luxemborg, WWII
F. the American POWs march eastward & the German reserves march westward &
eventually find themselves on a train car headed for a POW camp.
1. Wild Bob, the colonel dying of pneumonia, thinks he’s talking to his men
a. believes they will all meet again at his house in Wyoming
b. Vonnegut confirms that this actually happened
2. the POWs are put in train cars according to rank; Wild Bob dies in the colonel’s car
3. the train cars are marked with orange & black banners so they wont’ be bombed
4. Pilgrim’s train car does not move for 2 days, become filthy with waste
G. Pilgrim falls asleep and is back in 1967 when he was abducted
II. Chapter 3 – Analysis
A. religious reference to Adam & Eve
1. father & mother of o humanity in the Judeo-Christian tradition
2. represent a state of purity and sin
3. their fate was to wander the earth; Billy’s fate to wander through time
B. the small events in Weary’s life will add up his eventual death
1. many deaths is SHF are caused by a series of seemingly insignificant events that result in death
2. Vonnegut uses this to demonstrate the cruelty of fate
C. Vonnegut inserts a comparison of the 1967 world of Pilgrim to the ruined cities of Dresden
1. both places are ruined because of social and political reasons
2. illustrates the division in American society
D. Billy’s crying and vibrating bed
1. this follows Billy throughout the different stages of his life
2. his wealth does not help his deep-rooted sadness in his pot-war years
3. Billy tends to cry when alone
E. Billy’s sees “St. Elmo’s fire” over the heads of the Americans and Germans
1. St. Elmo’s fire is a weather phenomenon, bright blue or violet electric glow, looks like fire; thought to be a good omen
2. Billy’s visions are like those of a “pilgrim” in the throes of an ecstatic religious experience
3. Billy often thinks of Jesus and returns to other religious questions throughout his “travels.”
F. the “Wild Bob” events are part of Vonnegut’s experiences that bear witness to the
atrocities of WWII.
G. orange & black pattern repeats itself throughout Billy’s life
H. the hobo’s experience with worse conditions illustrates that although war can be
brutal, peace time can be just as awful for some.
1. war is just an addition of life
2. a natural outcome/part of humans’ life
I. at the end of chapter 3, Billy is the communicator between worlds
1. inside of the railcar and outside of the railcar
2. between the Tralfamadorians and earth
III. Chapter 4—Summary
A. Billy cannot sleep the night of his daughter’s wedding (which took place under an
orange & black tent)
1. gets out of bed, walks down the hallway, stop in his daughter’s room
2. answers a phone call from a drunk
3. he knows he is going to be abducted
4. so he watches TV
a. WWII movie is playing and is unstuck in time
b. the whole movie plays backwards
c. all of humanity eventually becomes babies
d. returned to Adam & Eve
5. Billy thinks he hears an owl but it it the Tralfamadorians flying saucer
B. Billy is sucked inside the flying saucer (100 feet in diameter)
1. greeted by a Tralfamadorian
2. asks why he was chosen
3. the alien says they are “trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no
why.”
4. Billy is strap to a Barca-Loungers, anesthetized
5. the acceleration of the ship takes him back to the war.
C. Back in the railcar
1. Billy is trying to lie down and sleep as the train moves towards Germany
2. no one wants Billy next to them
3. on the 9th day of their trip the hobo and Weary die
a. Weary had gangrene caused by the clogs
b. Weary wants someone to kill Billy Pilgrim
c. Weary blames Billy for his fate
4. they arrive at the POW camp on the 10th day (originally built to exterminate Russian prisoners)
D. Pilgrim is flows with the crowd of prisoners
1. is given a too-small, frozen coat
2. goes through the de-lousing station and must strip
3. Edgar Derby is near Pilgrim
a. 44 year old English teacher from Indianapolis
b. held Weary’s head has he died
c. has a son fighting in the Pacific
d. Vonnegut tell us that he will be executed in 68 days
E. Paul Lazzaro
1. a skinny car thief from Illinois
2. promised to kill Pilgrim for Weary
F. As everyone is being deloused, Billy becomes unstuck and is an infant
G. Billy is soon unstuck and is middle-aged and playing golf
H. He becomes dizzy and is on Tralfamadore; “three hundred million miles from Earth”
1. Billy is told that humans are “the great explainers”
2. Tralfamadorians see “all time as all time” like a “stretch of the Rocky
Mountains”
3. freewill = a concept created and used only by human beings on earth
IV. Chapter 4—Analysis
A. the call from the drunk was Vonnegut putting himself in the story
B. the WWII movie played in reverse
1. a manipulation of time
2. represents the wish of Vonnegut and Billy to undo the suffering war has
created
C. “trapped in the amber of the moment”
1. an insect can be unsealed from amber and brought into a new time period
2 Billy can be transported from one era to another
D. “There is no why”—events are fated to happen
E. the hobo’s death vs. Weary’s death
1. hobo still believes the railcar is not as bad as it could get
2. Weary is angered by his situation and needs someone to blame
F. Edgar Derby
1. no unlike Billy, but his bad luck gets him executed
2. in many ways, is the opposite of Weary
3. Derby wants to help Billy; looks after him in the sick-room
G. the comparison of delousing in the POW camp and the Tralfamadorian abduction links war and science fiction—in many ways, war is as “un-real” as sci-fi
H. Paul Lazzaro
1. Lazzaro’s wish for Billy to die becomes a fate that Pilgrim accepts
2. Pilgrim acknowledges that he will die because Lazzaro wished to so.
I. free will/time-travel/four dimensional time
1. according the the Tralfamadorians, we can see our lives from beginning to end
2. it is all fated and cannot be changed
3. we should focus on the good moments
V. Chapter 5—Summary
A. On his trip to the Tralfamadore, Pilgrim read Valley of Dolls and cannot read any of the Tralfamadorians’ novels (which are meant to be read all at once)
B. Billy is unstuck and is suddenly 12
1. with his family at the Grand Canyon
2. then with his family, 10 days earlier, at Carlsbad Canyons
3. and then back in the POW camp, with deloused, dirty clothes
C. the POWs march and are recorded into the ledgers as “alive”
D. Pilgrim, Lazzaro, Derby, and the others are taken to a shed with British POWs who
have been there since the beginning of the war.
E. The English POWs
1. they are officers
2. have attempted to escape other camps
3. they are happy, sing and exercise
4. have a lot of food sent to them by the Red Cross
5. have been preparing for the Americans’ arrival (cleaned, fixed a “banquet”)
F. Billy faints from weakness & comes to to the Englishmen performing the play
Cinderella
G. Billy becomes hysterical with laughter and has to be sedating
1. Derby watches over Billy
2. read The Red Badge of Courage to Billy
H. Billy dreams he is a giraffe and living w/other giraffes & becomes unstuck in time and
goes to 1948
I. Billy is in a veteran’s nonviolent mental hospital
1. checked himself in
2. had a breakdown just before finishing optometry school
3. the doctor’s think is trauma is caused by his father, not the war
J. Eliot Rosewater
1. checked in for alcohol abuse
2. introduces Billy to the sci-fi writer Kilgore Trout
3. both Billy and Eliot “found life meaningless, partly because ofwhat they had
seen in war.”
4. science fiction allows them to escape and reinvent themselves.
K. Billy hides under his blanket when his mom visits & Eliot has to talk to her
L. Billy once again becomes unstuck & is back in the POW camp & Derby is still reading
to him
M. After a conversation between Derby and an English officer, Billy is unstuck and back
at the mental hospital (1948)
1. Valencia (Billy’s then-fiancé) has come to visit him
2. Eliot compliments Valencia’s ring (which Billy took as a spoil of war)
3. Eliot discusses the problems w/Trout’s writing & Valencia eats her Three
Musketeer’s Bar
N. At some point, Billy becomes unstuck and is now 44 years old and on display in a
Tralfamadorian zoo.
1. the aliens find him beautiful
2. they watch him live: exercise, shower, eat, trim his toe nails, etc.
3. Billy learns there are 5 sexes on Tralfamadore and 7 on earth
4. these difference exist only in the 4th dimension
5. a Tralfamadorian guide has to use metaphors to explain to his fellow aliens
how Billy experiences time
6. the Tralfamadorian tries to impress upon Billy that he and humans in general
should “Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.”
O. Billy is then travels to his wedding night
1. a boat that appear to be orange and black glides by their apartment
2. Billy sees their whole marriage and know it will be tolerable
3. Valencia asks him about Derby’s execution
P. Billy goes back to the sick war at the POW camp when he gets up to go to the bathroom
1. Billy wonders outside and finds that many of his fellow POWs are sick from the rich food of the banquet.
2. One POW says he’s puking his brains out; Vonnegut claims this is him
3. Billy wonders out of the latrine, is told to button his pants by some of the British POWs, and is then back in bed with Valencia on their wedding night
Q. When Billy is transported back to the war, Lazzaro has had his arm broken by an Englishman when Lazzaro tried to steal his cigarettes
1. a German officer read from propagandist Howard W. Campbell Jr’s work
2. Campbell wrote that Americans are poor, uncouth, and bad liars
R. Billy falls asleep and wakes up in 1968 after Valencia has died
1. Barbara (his daughter) is angry with him for writing to the newspapers
2. Barbara turns up the heat, literally, and slams the door
3. Billy is suddenly on Tralfamadore and has been given a companion
S. Montana Wildhack
1. a beautiful Hollywood star
2. after about a week, Billy and Montana eventually become romantic
3. after this occurs, Billy is once again under a mound of electric blankets in 1968
T. Billy goes back to work (in 1968)
1. tell a boy about Tralfamadore & that this boy’s father is still alive
2. the boy’s mother complains and say Billy is going crazy
VI. Chapter 5—Analysis
A. This chapter attempt to show time
1. w/o a beginning, middle, or end
2. w/o linear direction
3. that time happens all at once
B. the tiny coat
1. symbolic of the horror of war
2. the small coat suggest whoever wore it was too little to fight back and was
shot to death
C. contrast between the Germans & Tralfamadorians
1. Germans are tying to control the POWs lives
2. Tralfamadorians are trying to understand Billy’s/humans’ lives
D. The Englishman
1. an example of living outside the linear timeline
2. they have not fought since the beginning of the war
3. only know of the horrors from other POWs that retell the tales
4. the create a fantasy-land—plays, banquets, dress for croquet—forget there is a world war
raging outside of the camp
E. Ironically, it’s the joy Billy experiences from the play that lands him in the sick-room (an example of focusing on the good times)
F. The Red Badge of Courage
1.an American novel about a young man’s fluctuations between courage and cowardice during the American Civil War.
2. Billy, during his WWII experience, never has a chance to show is courage
G. Vonnegut is making fun of psychotherapy during that era which thought all mental problems were related to familial issues/problems
H. Kilgore Trout
1. the introduction of a science-fiction writer that can create new worlds and alternate realities
2. this is vital to Billy and Eliot
3. both want a different world
4 the argument in Trout’s book: Jesus would be a more compelling figure if he were rescued by Godnot because Jesus is the son of God, but rather because Jesus is “anobody,” a person without connections, whom God saves simplybecause he loves all mankind.
5. the tweak would make Christianity more sensible and helpful to those in need
I. English officer’s comment about the Americans looking like children echoes the idea the wars are fought by children
J. for the Tralfamadorians, time is not linear
1. knowing about wars and destructions allows for liberation
2. according the the Tralfamadorians, such knowledge allows for the travel back and forth to
enjoyable moments.
K. “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt”
1. suggests that Billy did travel to pleasant moments
2. suggests that Billy did travel to the time that made life worth living
L. Vonnegut once again inserts himself in the story; he and Billy almost “meet”
M. Howard Campbell
1. fictional character
2. confuses the right and wrong of WWII
3. WWII has always been thought of as a war for democracy and against fascist
4. Campbell suggests that the Americans would be better off if they imitate the Germans and
fight the Russians
N. Billy and Montana
1. becomes a real and caring relationship
2. the eventually have a child
Billy’s relationship with Montana, although it is initiated by the
Tralfamadorians, becomes a very real and caring one, which later
leads to a child cared for by both while on Tralfamadore (time there
is different from time on earth; although Billy’s abduction is short in
earth-years, it is long in Tralfamadore-years). Billy’s advice, given to
a young patient, is well-intentioned but is quite shocking to the
child’s mother, who is not accustomed to Tralfamadorian ideas of
time.