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.

Chapter 7

Irony is present in the beginning of chapter seven. Billy boarded a plane that was taking him along with other passengers to a convention in Montreal. Billy was aware that the plane was going to crash, but the remaining passengers did not know of what was about to happen. Billy “knew it was going to crash, but he didn’t want to make a fool of himself by saying so” (196). The passengers and the barbershop quartet were singing along to Billy’s father-in-law’s favorite song, and the irony takes place when everyone was fine and content, but then the plane suddenly crashed. The incident was not expected, and no one knew of it except for Billy.

Chapter 6- Part 2

In today’s world, people are caught up in themselves. People are focused on getting people back if someone has done something to them that they do not agree with or think is justifiable. People are focused on revenge and getting even with that person that has hurt them in some way or another. The people in our generation and society need to learn to control their anger no matter what the situation and hold in the urge for revenge.

Chapter 6

Chapter six contains a dark tone because of death and revenge discussed in the chapter. Lazzaro thirsts for revenge on an officer who beat him up, and now he wishes that the man is to be killed. Lazzaro is full of anger and hatred for this man which is what changes the tone of the book somewhat. Lazzaro believes revenge to be the sweetest thing and also states “anybody touches me, he better kill me, or I’m gonna have him killed” (176).

Chapter 5- Part 2

The phrase “so it goes” can be used in life to represent how life plays out. Events that occur in life have an effect on us in different ways, but life still plays out and continues. People take the interpretations of those events in different ways depending on that person’s outlook.

Chapter 5

Repetition has been used frequently throughout chapter five by Vonnegut. The phrase “so it goes” (116, 125) is used in chapter five which continues to define Billy’s life by the means of time travel and uncontrollable telling of events. Even though Billy’s life seems out of order to the reader, his life goes on and continues to play out. Even though we read about his life in a non-chronological order, the events happened obviously in chronological order, and his life went on.

Chapter 4- Part 2

Because of the details Vonnegut uses in the book regarding bombings, the art of war, etc., I am reminded of the movie Pearl Harbor. There is a huge difference between reading about war and watching a movie about a war that actually took place. Reading about war and what happens only leads to picturing what actually happened, which is what leads me to think of the movie Pearl Harbor.

Chapter 4

In chapter four, Vonnegut uses the term foreshadowing in the context of Billy being captured by a saucer. It was the night before Billy’s daughter’s wedding, and Billy was in the kitchen and “looked at the clock on the glass stove. He had an hour to kill before the saucer came” (93). Because Billy had time traveled, he knew he was going to be taken by the saucer.

Chapter 3- Part 2

The allusion of Adam and Eve created on the golden boots is a biblical reference obviously referring back to the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden when God instructed Adam and Eve not to be tempted by the devil and eat the fruit from the tree. To me, this reference was like a vision similar to the one Bernadette received from Mary at Our Lady of Lourdes instructing her to pray for sinners.

Chapter 3

Vonnegut uses imagery in this chapter to be descriptive and give the reader a sense of what Billy was going through during the war. Vonnegut uses imagery when describing the golden boots that portrayed a picture of Adam and Eve. Billy looked at the boots and saw Adam and Eve, and that “they were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently” (68).

Chapter 2- Part 2

The character of Billy reminds me of people in our society today. To me, Billy’s life seemed mixed up and out of order. People in today’s society are like Billy in a way of having no control over something. People are spastic just like Billy and make decisions in life on a whim. I believe that teens in my generation and the ones to come aren’t going to know what part of their life they are “going to have to act in next” (29) because of the way they make decisions in life and poorly choose their way of doing things.

Chapter 2

Vonnegut uses indirect characterization regarding Billy when he says “Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren’t necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next” (29). All in chapter two, we learn basically Billy’s whole background, and what he has been through. Billy studied to be an optometrist, was drafted and entered the war in Germany, has two children, was involved in a plane crash where his wife died, and becomes sane. The uncontrolled telling of events in Billy’s life in this chapter resemble characteristics in himself.

Chapter 1- Part 2

In my personal opinion, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut is a flashback of his life during the war in Germany. The book so far has made me think about what our generation will remember about main events, such as September Eleventh, that have happened during our lifetime.  The war in Germany is obviously something my generation did not live through, in which we are reading about through Vonnegut’s perspective. September Eleventh can be read and learned about through a book in the same way as Vonnegut does in “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

Chapter 1

Kurt Vonnegut's style is very personal because he witnessed the war firsthand. He writes in first person point of view using details from his own life. In the first chapter, Vonnegut writes "I went back there with an old war buddy, Bernard V. O'Hare, and we made friends with a cab driver, who took us to the slaughterhouse where we had been locked up at night as prisoners of war" (1).Vonnegut uses personal details to keep the readers interested in the story and have an emotional connection to the plot and other characters.