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.