Chapter Ten: Coming Full Circle

The birds make their appearance for the final time. Billy realized that WWII in Europe is over, and is a free man. He sees the birds that Vonnegut mentioned in the beginning; the ones that break the vital silence after a massacre with "Poo-tee-weet?" This ending reminds me of another book, The Outsiders to be specific. It ends in a similar fashion. Ponyboy starts writing his story in order to pass his English class. This story (the end of the book) starts the way the beginning of the book did. The reappearance of the birds helped Vonnegut create a memorable ending and brought everything together nicely.

Chapter Ten: Situational Irony

Situational irony is defined as taking place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen. Situational irony occurs when Edgar Derby, the schoolteacher from Indianapolis, "...was caught with a teapot he had taken from the catacombs. He was arrested for plundering. He was tried and shot. So it goes." It is ironic that Derby would be executed for an item so insignificant. He paid the ultimate price for a meaningless teapot.

Chapter Nine: Justifying Loss

Death is not something to take lightly. It causes anguish to all parties who knew the deceased: family, friends, coworkers, etc. Grieving can take years before one can accept someone's death. It's certainly a roller coaster of emotions.

 

In chapter nine, Lily bought a book called The Destruction of Dresden. In the book, Ira C. Eaker, Lt. General, U.S.A.F., wrote a foreword concluded with "I deeply regret that British and U.S. bombers killed 135,000 people in the attack on Dresden, but I remember who started the last war and I regret even more the loss of more than 5,000,000 Allied lives in the necessary effort to completely defeat and utterly destroy nazism."

This quote poses a question that many have asked during conflict: which lives are worth more, civilians or soldiers? In addition, can you ever justify taking hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in war? I don't believe it will ever be able to be justified. 

Chapter Nine: Ambiguity

Ambiguity is defined as something that deliberately suggests two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work; an event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way, but done so in a way that contributes to the meaning of the work. An example of this in chapter nine is when Vonnegut is describing the locket on Montana Wildhack's neck. He says that it contained "...a picture of her alcoholic mother-a grainy thing, soot and chalk. It could have been anybody."

I believe this has two meanings. The first meaning is that the picture is in a decrepit state, and the details of her mother have faded away. The second meaning is that because the picture was unclear, anyone could have been that mother. No one is impervious to a swift downfall, and anyone could end up as a photograph with a tragic memory attached.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Chapter Eight: Dresden is Incinerated

The Dresden firebombing that Vonnegut has mentioned throughout the book finally occurred in chapter eight. Although Vonnegut could never truly explain the horrifying destruction that happened, he does a good job by using vivid, macabre imagery. For example:

"He told her about the stockyards with all fenceposts gone, with roofs and windows gone-told her about seeing little logs lying around. There were people who had been caught in the firestorm. So it goes."

Vonnegut said he could never tell a cohesive story about Dresden. Maybe that's why he uses such strong imagery in order for the reader to visualize what Dresden was like on the night of February 13, 1945.

Chapter Eight: Antihero

Howard W. Campbell, Jr. is an excellent example of an antihero. Campbell was "an American who had become a Nazi." An antihero is defined as a central who lacks the qualities traditionally associated with heroes such as courage, grace, intelligence, or morality.

Campbell's radical conversion into Nazism, a party that massacres individuals who do not fit into the "perfect" Aryan race, shows he lacks all positive qualities associated with being a hero. This means that he must be an antihero.

Chapter Seven: Billy Isn't Insane After All

Although Billy seemed quite insane up until this point, there is a line in chapter seven that may prove he still has a shard of sanity left. After the plane crash in Sugarbrush Mountain in Vermont, Billy was operated on by a famous neurosurgeon who mended Billy's fractured skull. While recovering,"...Billy was unconscious for two days after that, and he dreamed millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time-travel" Dreams are a very interesting part of the brain. Dreams can entail either real moments that we have experienced, or they can include incredible feats that we could never accomplish in reality. When Billy dreams about a real-life event, Vonnegut says it's time travel. This just shows how powerful the dreams are, and how deeply the events have impacted Billy.

Chapter Seven: A Quatrain to End All Quatrains!

A quatrain is a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be considered a unit. The quatrain in chapter seven occurs when a group of optometrists called the Four-eyed Bastards sing for Billy Pilgrim's father-in-law. They sing the following:

"Me and Mike, ve vork in mine.
Holy shit, ve have good time.
Vunce a veek ve get our pay.
Holy shit, no vork next day."

Chapter Six: Death is Everywhere

"If you protest, if you think that death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood a word I've said." -Billy Pilgrim

Death is an unavoidable force in all living creatures. That is an irrevocable fact. Some creatures die prematurely, and some die after living full lives. Some creatures die peacefully, and some die in horrific agony. Although death is so common, we have yet to fully understand death. Slaughterhouse Five is full of death references, and it famously says "So it goes." I started thinking about how casual that phrase is. Its almost like Vonnegut is nonchalant discussing the very dark subject of death.  I believe it is because our culture is filled references of death. Think about all the times someone has talked about a person who died, watched a TV show that depicted death, or listened to a song about violence and murder.  Let's take a look through various aspects of our culture to see death in its various forms:

Music:

"And Weep" and the cover contain quite a bit of violence and murder.

"This Song Plays Suicide" is about suicide (duh). The cover implies cannibalism.

Movies:
                                                             The Crazies

Other:
Obituaries in newspapers
TV shows (both comical and dramatic)
Video games
Books
Art
Crime and Punishment (death penalty)
...and so on.






I think you get the idea. I believe that Vonnegut is so casual when he mentions death because people are so used to the constant exposure, so death lost its impact. We are used to a force we can't understand; therefore, Vonnegut drives this point home. So it goes.

Chapter Six: Allusion

In chapter six, Billy is awoken by "animal magnetism" and discovers two small lumps in the lining of his overcoat. He is told to "...be content with knowing that they could work miracles for him, provided he did not insist on learning their nature."


This reminds me of a biblical story Vonnegut mentioned in chapter one: the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. While Lot and his wife were fleeing, Lot's wife is overcome with the irresistible temptation to look back. She knew it would immobilize her, but she could not resist and paid the consequences.

Billy knows that he has been instructed not to investigate the mysterious lumps, but his curiosity is piqued. He has to try his absolute hardest to curb his desire to find out in order to avoid any negative ramifications that may occur.

Chapter Five: The Future!

We've all wished to know the future. In chapter five, Billy tells his wife Valencia that she looks fine as she is, although she apparently is hideous. But Billy knows that his marriage is comfortable based on his time travel adventure. This made me think about how easy my life decisions would be if I could see the outcomes before they ever happened. Think about how assured we could be in our decisions if the Tralfamadorian principle of time actually existed!

Chapter Five: Dramatic Irony

Chapter 5 has an excellent example of dramatic irony. A German guard in the Dresden prisoner of war camp knocks down an American prisoner for seemingly no reason at all. The man was perplexed by the guard's action, so he asks "Why me?" The guard responds with a stereotypical German accent "Vy you? Vy anybody?"

If you remember in chapter four, Billy asks his Tralfamadorian captors why he was being captured.This shows dramatic irony because the reader knows that the responses were the same (minus the accent), and the characters do not.

Chapter Four: Why?

When Billy is abducted by the Tralfamadorians, he asks a question that all of us would ask in a similar situation: "Why?"

I think this shows that the human condition is full of curiosity. In our lives, when an act of pure chance occurs (good or bad), we often wonder why we were the one chosen over all the other people who could have been. Vonnegut showed an accurate depiction of human behavior by making Billy ask such a simple question.

Chapter Four: Explication

Chapter four has an interesting moment where one could use explication. While rummaging through his daughter's former room, her phone rings. "Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath—mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up." After finishing the chapter, I realized that the drunk was actually Kurt Vonnegut himself. Vonnegut mentioned that he had a habit of becoming inebriated and calling former girlfriends.



In addition, the use of roses, symbolic of romance, and mustard gas, a deadly chemical weapon, seems strange. However, I think it shows how deeply the war affected Vonnegut, and that he can no longer appreciate normal things (roses) without remembering the horrors of war (mustard gas).

Chapter Three: Weary is Finally Broken

In chapter two, a German unit stumbles upon Roland Weary beating Billy...which Weary did to pretty much everyone back home too.

In this moment, Weary is tremendously tough. But as chapter three progresses, I noticed that Weary was gradually breaking down. After the Weary is forced walk with the other prisoners of war in the German boy's clogs, the only thing he could think about was "...the agony in his own feet. In another instance, he did not resist a German soldier who spat on him, which is completely out of Weary's character.

I think this illustrates how war breaks a man down. The constant death, pain, sorrow, and anger Weary has felt completely changed him into a irreversibly fractured man.

Chapter Three: Metaphor

In chapter three, Billy Pilgrim mentions that he saw "...corpses with bare feet that were blue and ivory." Although the colors seems to be menial details surrounding frozen corpses, they actually represent something much more profound. If you would kindly look at the color chart I "borrowed" from Color Wheel Pro (http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html).




 

Color Meaning

  Blue

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.
Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.
Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

  White

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.
White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.
In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility, so you can use white to suggest safety when promoting medical products. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products.

The corpses having blue and ivory feet can mean a couple of things:
1) Fragility between light (could be life) and dark (could be death). Think of the Ying-Yang principle.
2) Both colors have positive connotations. Vonnegut might be suggesting that death is a good thing.

Chapter Two: Is Free Will a Facade?

Free will is one of the most basic aspects of humanity that we take for granted. Just because we are told to do something doesn't mean we have to. In chapter two, it seems like Billy doesn't have free will. When he was a little kid, his father tossed him into a pool in order for Billy to learn to swim. Billy preferred to stay at the bottom of the pool, but he was rescued instead. Another example is during WWII, where he joined a unit comprised of two scouts, Roland Weary, and himself. Billy is a joke of a soldier, he is not armed, does not have any military-issued clothing, nor was he trained to handle war. Overcome with dismay and suffering, Billy tells his squad to leave him behind. Weary instead forces him to carry on with them. With these two examples, one must ask: does free will even exist, or is it just wishful thinking?

Personally, it can seem like free will doesn't exist. Authority figures such as teachers, parents, and bosses seem to make my decisions for me, without letting me make my own choices. So I can sympathize with Billy Pilgrim in this chapter.

Chapter Two: Style

The feeling you get when you try to figure out Slaughterhouse Five's narrative style.

In chapter two, Billy Pilgrim jumps around time a lot. For example, Billy is trying to leave a party and drive away. However, the very intoxicated Billy cannot locate his car's steering wheel. Since he was in the backseat, he obviously was not going to find a steering wheel. In his inebriated state, he concluded that the steering wheel was stolen, and promptly passed out. In the next paragraph, Billy "... still felt drunk, was still angered by the stolen steering wheel. He was back in World War Two again, behind the German lines." This "time jumping" causes the narrative to have a disjointed and almost broken quality to it. However, Vonnegut used this in order to prove a point. The point of a narrative is to explicitly tell a coherent story. Narratives (well, good ones at least) make sense of their subjects, providing the reader with a deeper understanding of it. This is the reason why Vonnegut makes the novel disjointed. He did not want to simply make a narrative about Dresden because that would entail him making sense of the events. As the bird in chapter one demonstrated, it is impossible to make sense of a massacre or any other large-scale destruction.

Chapter One: "Poo-tee-weet?"

Vonnegut states that after a massacre, everything should be eerily quiet, but the birds break the necessary silence with incessant chirping. He says "And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like 'Poo-tee-weet?'" With this statement, Vonnegut suggests an idea: nothing remotely intelligent or justifiable can be said about a massacre or a war in general. No one can say anything to bring the victims back, nor can anyone fathom the atrocity that unfolded. Lives were unjustly taken and loved ones' lives were utterly destroyed as a result of a massacre. So what can be said to rationalize the horrid action that has taken place? Absolutely nothing can be said. Vonnegut uses the birds as a mechanic for showing a very important point: silence is the sole thing required after a massacre or a similar horrific act has taken place; words are not.

Chapter One: Irony

In chapter one, Vonnegut was talking to an old war buddy named Bernard V. O'Hare. Vonnegut discusses a particular scene which he wants to be the climax. Vonnegut enthusiastically states "I think the climax of the story will be the execution of poor old Edgar Derby. The irony is so great. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot. And he's given a regular trial, and then he's shot by a firing squad." This scene not only demonstrates the extreme irony in Edgar Derby's trial and subsequent execution, but it also shows the irony of the war. Derby's theft of the teapot was a trivial offense and should have been treated as such. However, Derby was forced to pay the ultimate price for an inconsequential act. The war in which this took place, World War II, also pertains to the irony of paying the ultimate price for a small thing. When Hitler began to set the "Final Solution" into motion, Jewish denizens were forced to pay the ultimate price for a trivial matter: their religion. Vonnegut's description of Derby's unfortunate end could symbolize a much larger tragedy; moreover, the irony certainly describes the course of World War II.