Chapter 10: The End

And now the book ends. Sad, really. Meanwhile the war has just ended and all Billy can do is walk around. Detained in the ruins of Dresden, and suddenly, oh ya, the war's over now. Billy walks outside and looks around. He sees a wagon and a bunch of trees with birds in them. One says, "Poo-tee-weet" (Pg 215)?

Chapter 10: Motif

Ah the end of the book, and its been a great read too. Vonnegut has fascinated me beyond my wildest expectations. His writing isn't insane, its eccentricly fantastic. His big way of amazing his readers is through his use of a very interesting MOTIF. All throughout the book he has used, "So it goes" (Pg 214), as an interesting little tid bit. He has used it on almost every page in the book. The even better part of it is that is was always used in the most interesting and appropriate spots.

Chapter 9: Controversy Over Dresden

Rumfoord also discusses the matter of the firebombing of Dresden with his young wife. He says how the American never knew the truth about what happened at Dresden during the raid. His wife wants to know why no one ever told the public about it and Rumfoord replies, "For fear that a lot of bleeding hearts... ... might not think it was such a wonderful thing to do" (Pg 191).

Chapter 9: Flat Character

In chapter 9, professor Rumfoord, who is Billy's roommate in the Vermont hospital, shows very limited, on dimensional views on things. He is a very successful professor, wrote dozens of books, and was a brigadier general in Air Force Reserve during WWII. He is described as, "... a hateful old man, conceited and cruel" (Pg 193). He is the greatest example of a FLAT CHARACTER. He also wants the doctors to let Billy die, because he believes that humans deserve doctors, and that with Billy in his current state, he should turned over to a, "tree surgeon" (Pg 190) or something.

Chapter 8: The Moon

As Billy and the other survivors leave the meat locker where they took refuge during the bombing, they are horrified by the sight that greets them. Dresden is gone. The bombers had literally wiped the city off the face of the earth. All that remained was a wasteland that Billy describes, "Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals" (Pg 178). The survivors made their way to an inn that wasn't hurt by the bombs. The innkeeper asked if there was anyone else, but they tell them that they had not seen a single living thing the entire way to the inn.

Chapter 8: Motivation

In this chapter Billy is living through his 18th wedding anniversary with his wife Valencia. They decided to throw a party to celebrate. During the party, a barbershop quartet sings a song and Billy is dramatically affected by it, seeming like he has seen a ghost or a has had a heart attack. It later realizes why this happened. He was there when Dresden was destroyed in the war, and when he and the other survivors came out, they met what remained of Dresden; nothing. There were four German guards with them and when they came out, "They looked like a silent film of a barbershop quartet" (Pg 178) as they thought of all their relatives, all their friends, that were surely dead. This shows Billy's MOTIVATION for why he reacted the way he did to the quartet at the party. 

Chapter 7: I Am Machine

Early in the chapter we are told another radical view of the Tralfamadorians. They believe that every living thing in the universe is in fact a machine. We are told, "It amuses them that so many Earthlings are offended by the idea of being machines" (Pg 154). Billy describes his father-in-law, Lionel Merble, as a machine, possibly because of his weight. He also describes Lionel's daughter as a machine, again due to weight issues.

Chapter 7: Internal Conflict

This chapter discusses the point when Billy is unconscious in Vermont after his plane crash. While his body lies dormant, his mind races, and remembers many things. INTERNAL CONFLICT is clear here for Billy needs to wake up, and it is all a matter of whether his mind wants him to or not. Of his dreams and visions the best ones, "... were time-travel" (Pg 157). He once again becomes unstuck in time, traveling back to his detainment in Dresden and his time at the Slaughterhouse.

Chapter 6: The Fur Coat

When Billy comes to after his morphine night, he feels a presence behind him. He soon realizes it's simply his fur coat, and the animal fur had simply magnetized against his skin. He then feels the coat and realizes there are two lumps in it. Something inside him tells him to ignore them and just move on. He does, until he and the other ninety-nine Americans reach Dresden. Their as he is being antagonized by a German doctor he unveils the two lumps. The smaller one, is a two karat diamond. The other is half of a denture, which is very ornate and made of silver. After he reveals them, "Billy smiled" (Pg 152).

Chapter 6: Hubris

In this chapter, Lazzaro reveals an intrical part of himself. The Englishman that broke his arm comes to visit him and see if he is alright. Lazzaro then says that he should watch his back because Lazzaro, "... told him was going to have him killed after the war" (Pg 138). He then further discusses revenge with Edgar Derby, the teacher, and Billy. Lazzaro is obsessed with revenge, and holds any and all grudges on anyone who "crosses him". This is the clearest example of HUBRIS I've ever seen.

Chapter 5: Four Dimensions

The fact that the Tralfamadorians can see in four dimensions is truly amazing. While Billy is displayed in the zoo on Tralfamadore, he gains further information on what is in the fourth dimension, that he and all other Earthlings cannot see. He is told, "... their flying -saucer crews had identified no fewer than seven sexes on Earth, each essential to reproduction... ... active only in the fourth dimension" (Pg 114). He is again baffled by such findings, for he has no idea what the five have to do with the making of life for humans.

Chapter 5: Flat Character

This chapter is defined by various prime examples of Vonnegut's genius. Paul Lazzaro, another captured American service man, is caught stealing a cigar from one of the British soldiers. In his civilian days, Paul was also a thief back in the United States. This shows that he is a FLAT CHARACTER. What is more, the Englishman was half asleep when it happened and in his sleepy daze, he "...had broken Lazzaro's right arm and knocked him unconscious" (Pg 127). The Englishman then carries Lazzaro to the makeshift hospital.

Chapter 4: Roland Weary

Another sad addition to this chapter was when Weary died in the train car. Billy states that he, "...died - of gangrene that had start in his mangled feet" (Pg 79). This simple fact that he died isn't fascinating at all. It's what he did just prior to his passing. He made sure that everybody in his train car knew who "killed him". He told everyone that Billy had done it.

Chapter 4: Flashback

In this chapter it would seem that the story is all over the place. But that is one of Vonnegut's trademarks. As well, FLASHBACKS ring through this one. Most obviously profound when Billy is taking the shower in the German internment camp, "And Billy zoomed back in time to his infancy (Pg 84)." Vonnegut tends to use very unique and ingenius literary tools in his works, which makes all his novels true works of art.

Chapter 3: Wild Bob

When the soldiers are being loaded onto the trains, a deranged and ill American colonel began talking with Billy. He has pneumonia, and is slightly delusional. He thinks Billy is part of his regiment, but almost all of his men had been routed by the Germans. He begins shouting, "'It's me, boys! It's Wild Bob!'" He later dies in the rail car he was put in.

Chapter 3: Irony

IRONY is prevalent in chapter 3 when the Germans take photos of Billy and Weary's feet. The Americans had always broadcasted their richness and high tech military gear. The Germans had disarmed their prisoners, and were now using that captured gear for themselves. They decided to show, "...heartening evidence of how miserably equipped the American Army often was, despite its reputation for being rich (Pg 58)." The Germans would use these photos as propaganda.

Chapter 2: The Three Musketeers

Weary is having a fantasy about his role in the war. He fantasizes that he and the two scouts are best friends and that they call themselves the Three Musketeers. He saydreams about how they could get Bronze Stars for their fictional bravery and valor. However, in the real world the scouts consider both Weary and Billy as a liability. So they end up ditching them in a frozen creekbed, and not even ten minutes later, German soldiers and their police dog locate, and capture Roland and Billy, but are "...filled with... ...curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home..." because they had viewed Weary savagely beating Billy for being useless.

Chapter 2: Imagery

In chapter 2, Roland Weary displays IMAGERY when he discusses torture with Billy. Weary knows a lot about torture since his father collects torture devices. He explains to Billy, "...neat tortures he'd read about or seen in the movies or heard on the radio... ...one of the inventions was sticking a dentist's drill into a guy's ear (Pg. 36)." Weary's knowledge of this gore is rather sickening in truth.

Chapter 1: The Teapot

Vonnegut begins his novel by talking about how an American was arrested for stealing a teapot in Dresden. This was all after Dresden had been firebombed by the Allies. The city had been decimated and thousands of people died. Yet in all the horror, chaos, and death, an American soldier was arrested for stealing a teapot. One of Vonnegut's war buddies also says that the guy was given a "fair" trial, and then killed by a firing squad. Oh the irony...

Chapter 1: Internal Conflict

Vonnegut is trying hard to write a book about what happened to Dresden. The only problem is that he is having trouble remembering. He says that "... not many words about Dresden came from my mind then... ... And not many words come now, either, when I have become an old fart... (Vonnegut 2)" He thought it would be easy to think about what had happened, but after he returned home, his mind refused to remember. He wanted to remember because he was going to write his "world famous" book about Dresden.

It's Alive

I'm only one chapter into Slaughter House 5... And I love it.