What is the summary of Slaughterhouse 5?

Book Summary. Slaughterhouse-Five is an account of Billy Pilgrim’s capture and incarceration by the Germans during the last years of World War II, and scattered throughout the narrative are episodes from Billy’s life both before and after the war, and from his travels to the planet Tralfamadore (Trawl-fahm-uh-door).

What happens to Billy in his last year of optometry school?

Billy returns to Ilium and finishes optometry school. He gets engaged to Valencia Merble, the obese daughter of the school’s founder. After a nervous breakdown, Billy commits himself to a veterans’ hospital and receives shock treatments.

What do Eliot Rosewater and Billy have in common?

Billy and Rosewater have one thing in common — both have found life meaningless and are trying to come to grips with the horrors of World War II. During the war, Rosewater mistook a 14-year-old fireman for a German soldier and shot him.

What is the significance of so it goes in Slaughterhouse-Five?

The author continually uses the phrase “so it goes” after every mention of death and mortality in Slaughterhouse-Five. It reflects the belief of the Tralfamadorians that someone who is dead in one moment is alive at another moments of their life. This is because all time exists at once.

Who killed Billy in Slaughterhouse-Five?

Moments after he predicts his own death and closes his speech with the words “Farewell, hello, farewell, hello,” Billy is killed by an assassin’s high-powered laser gun. He experiences the violet nothingness of death, and then he swings back into life and to early 1945.

Does Slaughterhouse-Five end on a happy note?

Slaughterhouse Five ends on a surprising note, with a bird tweeting “Poo-tee-weet?” to Billy Pilgrim. The ending is certainly not a conventionally happy one. The bird tweets a question that humans cannot understand. So, the ending is confusing and perhaps, even a little bit unsettling.

What does and so on mean in Slaughterhouse-Five?

What is the story of Slaughterhouse Five about?

Book Summary Slaughterhouse-Five is an account of Billy Pilgrim’s capture and incarceration by the Germans during the last years of World War II, and scattered throughout the narrative are episodes from Billy’s life both before and after the war, and from his travels to the planet Tralfamadore (Trawl-fahm-uh-door).

Who is Kurt Vonnegut hiding in Slaughterhouse Five?

Chapter 1 Kurt Vonnegut wishes to write a novel about the firebombing of Dresden, which he witnessed as an American POW and survived by hiding in a slaughterhouse. Vonnegut contacts his friend Bernard O’Hare, but they cannot remember much about the bombing.

Where can I get the Slaughterhouse Five litchart?

Get the entire Slaughterhouse-Five LitChart as a printable PDF. “My students can’t get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof.” -Graham S. In the second narrative, Billy travels through time, from his war experience to his youth to his post-war life and alien abduction.

Who is Paul Lazzaro in Slaughterhouse Five?

Paul Lazzaro, another soldier, overhears Weary calling for vengeance against Billy and vows to kill Billy. Billy also meets Edgar Derby, a kind, middle-aged soldier who cares for him in the POW camp and is later executed for stealing a teapot from the rubble of Dresden. Get the entire Slaughterhouse-Five LitChart as a printable PDF.