Entry #4: Billy Pilgrim: a Melodramatic Marty McFly

Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
Billy was once stuck in time, in the sense that everything that happened to him was a linear series of events that would occur from the moment of his birth until the moment he dies. Billy was unstuck in time when the Tralfamadorians showed him that from a subjunctive viewpoint, the could see into the fourth dimension, time. With this information, Billy was transported to and from different events in his time line. The Tralfamadorians can "...see how permanent all the moments are...It is just an illusion we have on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."
Does this means that these extraterrestrials are capable? And if so, how could the still be so benevolent? And why has time not been ripped apart by paradoxes due to their time travel?

If Marty McFly can cause whole people to disappear just by running into his mother in the 1950's, one would think that throwing Billy Pilgrim around randomly into different points in his time line would cause some sort of disruption.





"All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed and always will exist."
Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time. Perhaps this is why the narrator in chapter one was so concerned about time passing too quickly.

Entry #3: Characterization

"[Roland Weary] had been unpopular because he was stupid and fat and mean, and smelled like bacon no matter how much he washed."
Vonnegut characterizes the people in his book in a very unique way. Vonnegut uses characterization, the process by which the writer reveals personality, values, and quality of a character, by both blatantly addressing a character's flaws, and by revealing them indirectly through anecdotes. In the case of Roland Weary, Vonnegut initially portrays him as torpid, prude, and generally uncivilized. He is a very one-sided character that, when contrasted with the innocence of Billy Pilgrim, seems staunchly corrupt. Vonnegut goes on to explain Weary's character by sadistic behavior and torturous proclivities, making the character come off as even more sinister. Basically, the use of Vonnegut's characterization of Weary is to make him seem like the epitome of the violence obsessed man in order to illustrate the effects of a war focused society on young minds.
"It was a crazy, sexy, murderous relationship Weary entered into with people he eventually beat up."

Entry #2: An Obsession with Time

Beginning in the first full paragraph on page 20, the narrator and O'Hare find themselves waiting for their flight to Frankfurt. During this time, the narrator struggles with the concept of time passing quickly, and makes note of the books he had brought with him to occupy his time.
"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go."
And notes another passage in reference to time/clocks, "Make them stop...don't let them move anymore at all...There, make them freeze...once and for all!...So that they won't disappear anymore!"
The narrator, being damaged by war, seems to be paranoid of time passing too quickly without having accomplished anything. In my opinion, it seems almost as if he is afraid that time and fate have ruled too much of his life, and now that he was aging, he doesn't want to let his life be strictly dictated by fate. Vonnegut states his situation very plainly and simply on page 21:
"Time obsessed him."

Entry #1: Satire

As I began reading Slaughterhouse Five, I noticed that the first subject brought up by the narrator was the writing of his book. The narrator explains that his book would be focused on his experience in Dresden during the war, and that the book overall is based upon his anti-war philosophy.
Vonnegut's writing is satire, in the sense that it illustrates the shortcomings of an institution in attempt to bring about change. The narrator says "I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee." This exemplifies both Vonnegut's use of satire, and the narrator's pacifistic views.

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