Slaughterhouse-Five Review

What does Lazzaro say is the sweetest thing in life? What story does he tell to prove his point?

Lazzaro says the sweetest thing in life is revenge. He tells the story of what he did to a dog that bit him

Professor Bertram Copeland Rumfoord

Official Historian of the United States Air Force, Billy will share a hospital room with him.

Lily Rumfoord

Rumfoord's young trophy wife and research assistant. Lily Rumfoord is frightened of Billy, but she lies silent in the next bed as a symbol of the scope of powerlessness and lack of free will.

Why is Billy upset by his mother?

She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn't really like life at all

Why is Mary "polite but chilly"?

She was angry at Vonnegut because she was afraid his book would encourage war, and she did not want her children to die in a war

Bernard V. O'Hare

Someone he went to war with and he became his friend, district attorney

Poo-tee-weet

Sound bird makes after a massacre

What happened during the real Children's Crusade?

Started in 1213; 30,000 children volunteered to go to Palestine to convert people to Christianity; half drowned in shipwrecks; half were sold as slaves; a few were sent back home

What two acquaintances does Billy indirectly encounter in the "tawdry bookstore"? How?

Montana Wildhack, the magazine and the movie, Roland Weary, the picture of the woman and the pony

How is Edgar Derby elected head American?

The Englishman nominates him when there aren't any nominations from the floor. Derby then gives a speech promising that his "primary responsibility" is to "everybody got home safely

What do the American fighter planes do after the firebombing

The fighter planes came to check if "anything was moving." They "sprayed" bullets at anything they thought was moving in order to "hasten the end of the war," they shot at the Americans

How does Billy react to the barbershop quartet? Why?

The first time they sing he becomes upset. "He looked so peculiar that several people commented on it solicitously when the song was done. They thought he might have been having a heart attack." The second time they sing he runs upstairs. The quartet reminds him of the guards at the slaughterhouse during the bombing.

Why does the doctor tell Billy to take a nap every day?

The doctor ordered Billy to take a nap every day because Billy would find himself weeping (crying) for no reason. Also, he would fall asleep in the middle of examining patients. The doctor thought the nap might help.

What is Professor Rumfoord's opinion of Billy?

"I could carve a better man out of a banana."; Billy is a vegetable and should die

What did the old man in Billy's past think about old age?

"I knew it would be bad getting old, but I didn't know it would be this bad."

What does the bird say to Billy Pilgrim? Why?

"Poo-tee-weet?," to show that there is no answer as to how something as horrific as the bombing of Dresden could happen

What aspects of the book does the author insist really happened?

1) A guy was shot for taking a teapot 2) Another guy threatened to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war 3) The author went back to Dresden with Guggenheim money

What jobs did the author have after the war?

1) Police Reporter 2) Public Relations Man for General Electric 3) Professor of Creative Writing 4) Author

What are the two causes of the destruction that Billy drives through on his way to the Lions Club meeting?

1) The black people had burned down the ghetto they lived in in Ilium 2) The house where Billy grew up had been torn down to build a new Ilium government center

What two lies does Trout tell Maggie White?

1) The most famous thing he ever wrote was about a funeral for a great French chef. "All the great chefs in the world are there" and "mourners sprinkle parsley and paprika on the deceased." 2) On Judgment Day, she'll be told all the bad things she did and she'll burn forever. "The burning never stops hurting."

Werner Gluck

16-year-old guard at slaughterhouse; Dresden boy; distant cousin of Billy Pilgrim

Why is the book "so short and jumbled and jangled"?

Because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre

What does Billy do to occupy his time before the aliens come?

Before the aliens come, Billy watches a late-night documentary on American bombers and their gallant pilots in World War II to occupy his time.

Mary O'Hare

Bernard's wife, doesn't like books that influence people to go to war

How do the Tralfamadorians when Billy asks "why me?"

They think it's a very earthling thing for him to say. They tell him that there is no why, since the moment simply is and since all of them are trapped in the moment, like bugs in amber.

Why does Vonnegut refer to the prisoners on the trains as "human beings"?

They were no longer individual people; they were just a mass of beings that eat, drink, sleep, and use the toilet

What happens to the scouts?

They were shot from behind.

What work was assigned to the Americans in Dresden?

They work in a factory that made malt syrup for pregnant women

What is the origin of the phrase "so it goes"?

This is what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people because they have a different concept of time. They believe that all time, past, present, and future, exists forever, so people don't really die. Death is no big deal to them.

Fourth dimension

Tralfamadorian philosophy of death

"So it goes"

Tralfamadorian philosophy of time

What happens to Billy on the New York radio show?

He talks about the Tralfamadorians, he is kicked off the show at the next break

How does Billy describe the Tralfamadorians?

Two feet high; green; shaped like "plumber's friends" (plungers); Suction cups pointed to the ground; flexible shafts pointed to the sky; with a hand on the top and a green eye in the palm

Edgar Derby

Was shot by a firing squad for stealing a teapot, high school teacher who was a war buddy

What does Weary tell the other men in his car before he dies?

Weary tells the other man to avenge his death by killing Billy.

Why does Weary try to beat Billy?

Weary, a huge bully/jerk, had always been ditched by people in the past. He had a pattern of beating the crap out of people when this happened. When the 2 scouts ditched Weary and Billy, this triggered his anger and he started to beat up Billy, almost killing him.

Describe Billy's habitat in the Tralfamadorian zoo

His habitat in the Tralfamadorian zoo looked like a house in a magazine or a display in the store. There was a couch that turned into a bed, pool table, home bar, and end tables with lamps. The TV didn't work, but a picture of a cowboy killing another cowboy pasted on the television tube.

What does the author describe as one of his nicest moments?

His trip back to Dresden with O'Hare, he imagined dropping bombs on the places they were flying over

Roland Weary

a stupid, cruel soldier who is taken prisoner by the Germans along with Billy

Over the course of the firestorm, Dresden is transformed from:

the sun to the moon

Harrison Starr

A movie maker and a critic of the state of the novel in the modern world; he contends that wars happen regardless of what anyone does to prevent them.

What difference does the author see in the veterans who "really fought" and the veterans who had office jobs? Why do you think this difference exists?

According to Vonnegut, the veterans who "really fought" were the kindest, funniest, and hated war the most. The difference between the vets who fought and those who did not is that the one's who did not felt inferior, so they were jerks.

Tralfamadorians

Aliens shaped like toilet plungers, each with one hand containing an eye in its palm. Their philosophies of time and death influence the narrative style of the novel. They perceive time as an assemblage of moments existing simultaneously rather than as a linear progression, and the episodic nature of Slaughterhouse-Five reflects this notion of time. Their acceptance of death, which Billy embraces, leads the narrator to remark simply "So it goes" at each mention of death.

Howard W. Campbell, Jr.

American who became a Nazi; recruiting men for German military unit called "The Free American Corps"

Paul Lazzaro

Another POW and the man responsible for Billy's death. Lazzaro, a revenge-loving ruffian with criminal tendencies, arranges for Billy's assassination to avenge Roland Weary's death. Lazzaro's determination to kill Billy does not create a conflict between the two characters, however; because Billy has accepted the Tralfamadorians' conception of nonlinear time, he is unconcerned by his death.

What does the author do to entertain himself late at night? Why can't he sleep?

Asks the operator to call his old girlfriends;He can't sleep because he drinks late at night and thinks about the war

Maggie White

Attends Billy's wedding anniversary party; wife of an optometrist, the girl who Kilgore Trout lied to

Kurt Vonnegut

Author of "Slaughterhouse-Five"

Describe the English POWs that Billy and the Americans encounter

Billy and his group encounter a group of singing prisoners after being dog-tagged by the Germans. They are a healthy looking group of men that the Germans appreciated because they look like true Englishmen. They are fit, they have food and lots of shelter, and they are even having a great time and singing. What is interesting is that they look just like what the author describes in the beginning of the book when he mentions how movies make out war to be glamorous and soldiers to be handsome heroes who always triumph.

How does Billy meet Trout?

Billy meets Trout when the latter is yelling at his newspaper delivery boys to sell more papers. Billy's car can't get through the crowd of kids on their bikes. Billy waits until the meeting ends to speak to the man who he has realized is the science fiction writer. Trout can't believe he has a fan

Why does the widowed mother think Billy is "going crazy"?

Billy told her son all about his time on Tralfamadore and that the boy's father "was very much alive still in moments the boy would see again and again"

What is implied by the opening line of chapter 2: "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time? When was the first time Billy Pilgrim came unstuck in time? What do you think causes or sets this off?

Billy travels randomly through moments of his life without being able to control where he is going or at what point in time he will wind up

Montana Wildhack

Billy's companion in the Tralfamadorian Zoo

Barbara

Billy's daughter - age 21; just married; faced with her mother's sudden death and her father's apparent mental breakdown

What is the source of the animal magnetism Billy feels in the prison hospital bed?

Billy's impresario's coat with a fur collar.

Robert

Billy's son - failure and delinquent in school;becomes a Green Beret (elite soldier) in the Vietnam War

Valencia Merble

Billy's wife; daughter of the owner of the Ilium School of Optometry; she was rich; Billy didn't want to marry her but does anyhow

How does the message of the war movie change when it is viewed backwards?

By watching the war in the opposite direction, it takes on the opposite meaning. World War II was an unbelievably violent, traumatic, and destructive moment in history, but when watched backwards it is transformed into a period of intense healing and care giving. In reverse, soldiers and pilots no longer belong to conflicting groups but to humanity as a whole; they no longer try to kill each other. Instead, they choose to help each other, resulting in the whole human race working together to ease suffering.

How does Valencia die?

Carbon monoxide poisoning after she was in an accident on her way to the hospital to see Billy

Mr. and Mrs. Lance Rumfoord

Couple that is honeymooning on same yacht as Billy. Billy later meets Lance Rumfoord's uncle.

How does Derby respond to Campbell?

Derby calls Cambpell a "snake" and then adds he's even lower than a snake.

How does the Maori POW die?

Died of the "dry heaves after having been ordered to go down in that stink and work. He tore himself to pieces, throwing up and throwing up."

What do you learn about the Tralfamadorians and their philosophies in chapter two? Explain why the Billy Pilgrim believes people will take real comfort in the Tralfamadorian's perspective on time and death.

Each moment in time is a beaded necklace, each bead represents a moment of time, a mountain range, he uses this to comfort people who have experienced trauma, Billy's coping mechanism

What epitaph does Billy think of on his wedding night?

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt

Eliot Rosewater

Former infantry captain who "was sick and tired of being drunk all the time, introduces Billy to science fiction and Kilgore Trout's books.

Dresden

German city bombed in 1943

How does Billy die?

He explains he is killed by a high-powered laser gun when he is giving a speech in Chicago on the topic of flying saucers. It happens on February 13, 1976.

Why does Cambell visit the American POWs?

He wants them to join his unit called "The Free American Corps" and fight the "Communists"

How had the army improved Robert?

He was all straightened out

Describe Billy's war experience up to his capture?

He was sent to Germany and arrived right after the Battle of the Bulge. With 3 other American soldiers - 2 scouts and one anti-tank gunner. They are behind enemy lines and have to keep moving to escape. Billy has no boots, no coat, no helmet and no weapon. The anti-tank gunner, Roland Weary, keeps Billy alive.

What does Campbell write about American POWs in Germany?

He writes that "they were known everywhere to be the most self-pitying, least fraternal, and dirtiest of all prisoners of war" (131). "They were incapable of concerted action on their own behalf. They despised any leader from among their own number, refused to follow or even listen to him, on the grounds that he was no better than they were, that he should stop putting on airs" (131).

Describe the Americans' "home away from home."

It was a one-story cement-block cube with sliding doors in front and back. It had been built as a shelter for pigs about to be butchered. Now it was going to serve as a home away from home for one hundred American prisoners of war (Slaughterhouse-Five)

How does Billy describe Dresden after the fire-bombing?

It was like the moon

What is introduced to Billy in the veterans' hospital?

Kilgore Trout books

Pilgrim

One who journeys

To what does the author compare his first view of Dresden?

Oz (allusion to the Wizard of Oz).

Billy Pilgrim

Protagonist of the novel; WWII veteran; optometrist; believes he has come "unstuck in time"

Kilgore Trout

Science fiction writer

What does the war widow in the kitchen think of Billy, Gluck, and Derby?

She doesn't think of them as "real soldiers"

Children's Crusade

Subtitle of Slaughterhouse-Five

How is he captured? With whom?

The 2 scouts ditch Billy and Roland because Billy could not keep up and Roland stayed with Billy. Roland gets so mad that he starts to beat up Billy and they are exposed to the Germans. Billy and Roland are captured together.

What processes do the Americans go through when they arrive at the camp?

The Americans give their names and serial numbers so that they can be reported to the Red Cross. After this, they are marched to sheds occupied by middle-aged British POWs.

What ability do the Tralfamadorians have that Earthling do not?

The Tralfamadorians could see in 4 dimensions; Earthlings can only see in 3 dimensions

What is the only thing Billy cries about in the war?

The blood in the horse's mouth

Gerhard Muller

The cab driver he met when he went back to Dresden, German

Why do the other POWs refuse to let Billy sleep near them?

The reason why the other POWs refuse to let Billy sleep near them in Slaughterhouse Five is because he kicks, whimpers, and yells in his sleep.

Describe the plane crash in which Billy is injured.

The plane crashes into the top of Sugarbush Mountain in Vermont. Up until that point, the ride had been "without incident." Everyone perishes except for Billy and the copilot.

How is Billy lifted into the flying saucer?

The saucer hovered over Billy, and to enclose him in a cylinder of pulsing in purple light. Now there was the sound of a seeming kiss as an air tight hatch in the bottom of the saucer was opened. Down snaked a ladder that was outlined in pretty lights like a Ferris wheel. Billy's will was paralyzed by a zap gun aimed at him from one of the portholes. It became imperative that he take hold of the bottom rung of the sinuous ladder, which he did. The rung was electrified, so that Billy's hands locked onto it hard. He was hauled into the airlock, and machinery closed the bottom door.

Why does science fiction appeal to Billy and Rosewater?

They both had done/seen horrible things. So they [Rosewater and Pilgrim] were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help

What do Billy, Gluck, and Derby discover in the first building they enter while looking for the slaughterhouse kitchen.

They discover a dressing room filled with female German refugees.

How do the Americans get vitamins and minerals?

They eat the syrup off of spoons.

What is Tralfamadore? What happens to Billy there?

Tralfamadore is a planet Billy believes he was kidnapped and taken to in 1967; He was displayed naked in a zoo and mated to a former movie star from Earth named Monica Wildhack

Is there a similarity between the format of Vonnegut's novel and the description of Tralfamdorian novels? Explain.

Yes, not in chronological order, meant to show all of a life not just parts, There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects."

Wild Bob

a POW who is captured with Billy. He was a colonel in the army and was from Cody, Wyoming. He is sick with double pneumonia and is mentally unstable. All 4500 of his men had been killed.

"Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals." This sentence contains:

simile

The sun was an angry little pinhead." In the context of this sentence, the word pinhead most likely means:

something insignificant