Chapter 10- Part 2

The novel in whole reminded me of the movie The Notebook. The Notebook is similar in a sense that the order of events of Noah and Allie’s life are told out of order. Similar to the movie, Billy’s life was told out of order much like the plot of the movie. In the movie, Allie suffers from Alzheimer’s and struggles remembering aspects and people from her life and has trouble putting her life together. This compares to the reader trying to piece Billy’s life together while reading the book.

Chapter 10

In the final chapter of the book, Billy’s life is brought together by the end of the war. To me, war was a symbol of life not only in this chapter, but the whole book. Just like war, life has it’s ups and downs, and you obtain new friendships and also lose some friendships. Billy definitely lost and gained people throughout his life. His wife and father, for example, both had passed. Regarding the dead, the Tralfamadorians said that Charles Darwin “taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements. So it goes” (269).

Chapter 9- Part 2

The passing of Billy’s wife contributes to the fact that life in uncontrollable and unpredictable. The saying “Life Happens” is existent throughout this book because of the unfortunate events that take place and that are possible. Anything in life in possible, and things can take a turn for the good or bad at any given moment.

Chapter 9

Vonnegut presents situational irony in this chapter. Billy is in the hospital recovering from the plane crash while Valencia is frantically on her way to see him. Valencia was under the impression that Billy was going to die. Valencia was in a state of shock, and “she missed the correct turnoff from the throughway. She applied her power brakes, and a Mercedes slammed into her from behind” (233). The situational irony is present when Valencia dies when reaching the hospital from poison when she was coming to visit her recovering husband.

Chapter 8- Part 2

This chapter reminded me again of the sadness and reality of war. The way that Billy describes the war scene reminds me of September Eleventh and the tsunami that took place in Thailand. The unfortunate tragedy that happened in those two events is very similar to the tragedy that takes place in war. Poor innocent people lost their lives just as people did in the war in Germany.

Chapter 8

In chapter eight, the mood is distinguished through the bombing of Dresden. The mood of chapter eight is depressing because “about one hundred and thirty thousand people in Dresden would die” (210). During Billy’s time travel, he tells more about the bombing of Dresden and of all the dead bodies laying on the ground. Billy described the bodies of the dead as logs lying around.

Chapter 7- Part 2

Chapter seven made me think of how life is full of surprises. Just like the people on the plane, they thought nothing of a crash happening to them so suddenly and did not expect anything like that to happen. Life throws things at people to see how they handle and react to them. It is completely spontaneous, and something life-changing could happen at any moment.