Slaughterhouse-Five Analytical Discussion Questions
Title Page
1. How does the title page of Slaughterhouse-Five differ from that of a conventional book?
2. What is suggested by the subtitle of the book: The Children’s Crusade, a Duty-Dance
with Death?
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter One
1. From what point of view is Chapter One told, and what effect does this literary
technique have on the unfolding of the story?
2. In the first few pages of the book Vonnegut tells us off-handedly about a German cab
driver’s mother who “was incinerated in the Dresden firestorm. So it goes.” Referring
to the horrible firebombing a few paragraphs later, Vonnegut says he expected a book
about his experiences “would be a masterpiece, or at least make me a lot of money,
since the subject was so big.” And later a movie director jokes with Vonnegut that
such an anti-war book would have as much appeal as an “anti-glacier” book. What
is your reaction to these episodes strung together? What narrative tone is Vonnegut
establishing?
3. What are Vonnegut’s initial motivations in writing Slaughterhouse-Five (as he informs us in this chapter) and what happens to change that motivation?
4. The author begins to clarify his own ideas by comparing and linking them to a rather
strange assortment of high and low art: a ribald limerick, a nonsense song, the poetry of
Roethke, the Bible, and social histories. Why?
5. Upon hearing of Vonnegut’s idea for the book, the movie-maker Harrison Starr first asks if the author intends the work to be an “anti-war” book. Then he asks, “Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?” What do you make of this exchange?
6. Vonnegut introduces his friend Bernard V. O’Hare no fewer than three separate times in the first chapter—each time by full name as if he had not been mentioned earlier. Why?
8. Vonnegut tells O’Hare he has an idea for the climax of his novel: “the execution of poor old Edgar Derby” and asks for his opinion. (Pg. 5) What is the importance of this segment?
9. In what ways does Vonnegut use or refer to machines in Chapter 1? What can we infer from these references?
10. On page 15, O’Hare produces a book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and reads several passages from the book. One passage is about the medieval European crusade to capture Palestine. Another is about a so-called Children’s Crusade. What is the significance of these passages?
11. When Vonnegut goes to sleep (“in one of the children’s rooms”) in O’Hare’s house, he finds on his bedside table a book entitled: Dresden, History, Stage and Gallery, which
relates a shelling of Dresden in 1760. What is the significance of this history?
13. The last thing Vonnegut reads in his motel room is the Gideon Bible, specifically the story of Lot. Why do you suppose the author includes this text in his developing literary
“scrapbook”?
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Two
1. How does the structure of the second chapter resemble that of the first?
2. As they read deeper into Slaughterhouse-Five, readers will begin to notice the repetition of the phrase “so it goes” as a sort of refrain when a death is mentioned. What is the effect of this device? What is the author’s intention?
3. Slaughterhouse-Five features constant internal associations. That is, the reader notices subtle connections among characters, events, episodes, etc. For instance, something happens to one character that is eerily similar to that which happened to another. Find at least one of these associations. Can you infer the author’s intention in his use of this literary technique?
4. How is Vonnegut’s description of the Tralfamadorians satiric?
5. How does Vonnegut use sentence structure in Slaughterhouse-Five to further his literary aims? Give examples.
6. The moment when Billy becomes “unstuck in time” on page 43 is a critical juncture—at least thematically. Discuss the symbolism surrounding this episode.
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Three
1. We have said before that 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. Give an example of structural irony from the book at large.
2. The third chapter is filled with clashing perceptions. Explain. What is Vonnegut implying?
3. Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five during the height of the Vietnam War. Is there a thematic link between that conflict and World War II? Where is that apparent in this
chapter?
4. The second through ninth chapters of Slaughterhouse-Five are written in the third-person perspective. Have you noticed places in these chapters, however, where that perspective suddenly, momentarily, changes? Explain where this happens, and why.
5. The literary technique called stream-of-consciousness was an important invention
of modernist writers like James Joyce, William Faulkner, and Virginia Woolf. Instead
of using traditional narrative perspective, these authors told the story through the
thought processes of a character. That interior monologue is sometimes disjointed,
ungrammatical, illogical, thereby confusing the reader. Critics say Vonnegut’s writing
shares similarities to that of these earlier authors. Can you say how?
6. How does Vonnegut use vivid imagery, personification, and metaphors/similes in the third chapter to aid his purpose?
7. Point out some references to water in this chapter and explain their metaphoric function.
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Four
1. What are some images of innocence, or Eden, featured in this chapter?
2. 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.
3. How would you describe the morality of the Tralfadorians, as they are depicted on pages 76 and 77?
4. What is the significance of the images of entrapment? How do these images work with the images of innocence?
5. In various scenes in this chapter, Vonnegut interjects the phrase, “somewhere a dog
barked.” Why?
6. Some literary critics see Billy as a Christ figure. What do you think of this interpretation?
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Five
1. On page 91 an American prisoner asks his Russian guard, “Why me?” The guard
responds, “Vy you? Vy anybody?” Explain the significance of the exchange.
2. Describe three images that make a strong impression on you in this chapter. Why did
these images catch your attention?
3. What irony do you see in the situation with the POW Englishmen?
4. List some references to light and darkness in Chapter 5. Explain how these symbols
might connect to themes in the book.
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 seen in Chapter 5?
6. How is the glass of water on Billy’s bedside table, on page 101, a metaphor?
7. Vonnegut has Edgar Derby reinforce his two main points about war. What are they? What metaphor for war is used?
8. Chapter 5 contains many references to bodily functions. What are some of these? What is the point of these references?
9. How does Billy’s habitat in the Tralfamadorian zoo reflect the Eden motif?
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Six
1. What portrait of politics and political leaders does Vonnegut present in this chapter?
2. How would you interpret the exchange between the surgeon and Billy in light of your growing understanding of the anti-war theme in the book?
3. 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 way is the novel like an allegory?
4. What is the significance of the novel’s title: Slaughterhouse-Five?
Need to Know / AnswerChapter Seven
1. How do your sympathies fluctuate as you read this chapter? Trace your feelings
as you encounter various characters (even races of people)—Billy, Lionel Merble,
Tralfamadorians, Poles, Germans, Edgar Derby, Werner Gluck, et al. Are we to infer
anything from this fluctuation?
2. Why does Vonnegut include the brief scene of the refugee girls in the shower?
3. At the beginning of the chapter Vonnegut tells us 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 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?
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Eight
1. Explain the symbolism of the character Howard W. Campbell, Jr.
2. We have seen that periodically Vonnegut 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. Throughout mythology and literature, caves and other underground vaults have often held the ambiguous symbolic significance of representing wombs and/or tombs. Discuss the underground slaughterhouse “meat locker” and the Americans’ survival of the bombing in light of this symbolism.
6. Discuss 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.
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Nine
1. In this chapter, Vonnegut recapitulates many themes developed earlier in the book. Cite examples.
2. 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.
3. On rare occasions throughout the novel, Billy rises above his “listlessness,” albeit just
barely. Cite one such occasion in Chapter Nine.
4. Billy’s “speaking out,” however, also takes a pathetic turn in this chapter. Explain.
5. Cite examples of satire in Chapter Nine.
6. What does Billy’s fascination with the novels of Kilgore Trout—more so than the smut in the porn shop—tell us about him? What is Vonnegut’s attitude toward this fascination
and the stories Billy finds fascinating?
7. How is the prayer that Montana wears around her neck symbolic? What is the
association between the prayer and Billy’s behavior during this chapter?
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus
Chapter Ten
1. From what you know about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, is Vonnegut accurate when he writes on page 210, “Charles Darwin, who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements”?
2. How does the narrative point of view change in the last chapter? What is the effect of
this literary strategy?
3. Why does Vonnegut consider his plane ride back from Dresden “one of the nicest
[moments]” of his life? (Pg. 211) What is the author suggesting by underscoring this
moment?
4. How does the information on population growth in O’Hare’s pamphlet connect with the earlier mention of Charles Darwin and evolution?
5. 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 the symbolism and significance of this segment?
6. What does Edgar Derby’s execution symbolize?
7. Does Slaughterhouse-Five end on a “happy note”?
P R E S T W I C K H O U S E L I
Need to Know / AnswerLiterary Device Focus