Thoughts over Ch. 10

The way Vonnegut ended the book was kind of weird I thought. The twist of events that the bird is 'talking' made me a little intrigued, but also left me a little confused. But I guess he wouldn't be Vonnegut if he didn't leave us hanging off our chairs to hear more! Billy kept talking about how if he was going to live forever that he was glad that most of memories were good ones. That got me thinking. It made me think that every moment is a new moment to make a difference and or simply just makes someone's day. It made me realize that life's to short to be sitting around mopping about the small things. We need to go out and live our lives!(: 

So here...and i know this is kinda crazy a random, but I wouldn't be me if i didn't post a song that along with this book(: 

GO LIVE YOUR LIFE!XD 

Ch. 10 - Implied Metaphor

In the final chapter of the book, on the last page the birds are curpping and 'talking' as the soldiers come out of their quarters in Dresden. The little bird says to Billy "Poo-tee-weet"(215). In the beginning of the novel, Vonnegut makes sure that the audience knows that talk about war really isn't that important. So, when I read that the bird talked to Billy on D-Day in Europe in made complete sense that Vonnegut was trying to imply a meaning or rather a comparison about how birds talking is about as exciting as the topic of war.

Thoughts over Ch. 9

In chapter 9 I thought about the passing of Michael Jackson and how sudden it was. The tragic and accidental death of Valencia reminded me so much of that event. Everyone was so shocked when MJ died. I mean they're still having court issues with the Doctor who gave him his medicine. Reading this chapter two times made me realize how precious life is. It can be taken away from you within a blink of an eye. So my advice??? Well it would be to spend as much time with the ones you love dearest because you never know when their going to die or when you're going to die. Only God knows  that. So, lets be like MJ and live our lives to the fullest!(:

Ch 9 - Quatrains

In chapter nine we find out that Valencia, Billy's wife has passed away. He has to miss the funeral because he is still to sick from the plane crash. Sucks doesn't it? I mean would you want to miss your own wife's funeral? I sure wouldn't...(if I was a guy haha). Later in the chapter the narrator goes on to explain that Billy does not like crying or making "boohooing" noises, but that when he feels sad he cries softly because he feels bad for someone or something. He says that he is glad that he can resemble something good for once. He says that he resembles the Christ of the Carol. Vonnegut then uses a quatrain to show off the characteristic of Billy. 

"The cattle are lowing,

The baby awakes.

But the little Lord Jesus

No crying hes makes" (197).

Billy is trying to say that he is somewhat good. He is trying to tell us that he can be good like Jesus Christ. 

Thoughts over Ch. 8

The event that I found most interesting and weird was when Billy cowered away from the singing quartet at his party. He compared the singing quartet to the four officers that survived the night Dresden was destroyed. The fact that he compared an innocent group of singers to a group of surviving officers reminds me of when some sees a mouse on the floor of their kitchen. They jump up and cower away as if the little creature has a contagious disease. When Billy cowered away from the singers you realize just how tragic and horrible the events were on that night that Dresden was destroyed.

Ch. 8 - Ballad

At the beginning of Chapter 8 Campbell expresses a ballad to his fellow Americans. "Blue is for the American sky...White is for the race that pioneered the continent, drained the swamps and cleared the forests and built the roads and bridges. Red is for the blood of American patriots which was shed so gladly in years gone by." (163). This ballad explains what Americans have had to go through to get to where they are now. He is saying that the courage that these soldiers have is relentless and inspiring.

Thoughts over Ch. 7

The irony that was expressed in Chapter 7 reminded me of the terriorist attack on 9/11. Everyone in the world thought that the United States was invincible...until the planes crashed into the twin towers in new york city. The whole world was astonished. No one would have ever thought that someone would have had the guts to crash a plane into world trade centers. But it happened. That irony will live on in history, but those families will never get their loved ones back. The exact opposite happened.

Ch. 7 - situational irony

Billy and twenty-eight other optometrists are now boarding a plane that is supposed to get them to a convention. Billy knows that the plane is going to crash but does not tell the others. This is what we call situational irony. Any sane person, if they knew a plane was going to crash killing almost all of the passengers would tell one of the pilots. Billy did not do this. " He knew it was going to crash but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so." (Vonnegut 154). He goes on to explain that everyone was killed besides Billy and the copilot. It is completely and utterly ironic. The reader would have thought that he would have died because it was a plane crash, but the fact that he knew it was going to crash and then lived made it even more sour.

Thoughts over Ch. 6

While I was reading chapter 6 the one thing that kept popping up was the subject of revenge. It reminded me of a book I read called City of Fallen Angels. The villain of the book wants to take revenge on the shadowhunters. Shadownhunters are individuals born to kill demons and anything else that tries to upset the balance of good and evil. He believes that their way of thinking is horrible. So he decides to raise a demon from the dead and make all the good shadowhunters drink her blood. That in my opinion is how low lazzaro is being. Hes taking everything everyone holds dearly and crushing it with his opinions. He is making sure that Billy knows that he is going to die at his hands.

Ch. 6 - foil character

In chapter 6 Lazzaro explains to Billy and Edgar that revenge means everything to him. So when asked about if he is going to take revenge against the blue fairy godmother he replies with " Im gonna have him shot...He'll get home after the war...A couple years'll go by. And then one day there'll be a knock on his door...the stranger'll say, ' Paul Lazzaro sent me.' And he'll pull out a gun and shoot his pecker off. " (Vonnegut 140). When he is saying this, Lazzaro is looking straight at Billy. Lazzaro is foiling and ruining everything for Billy. He's the exact opposite of him. Where as Billy wants nothing more than to sleep and have peace, Lazzaro wants to take revenge on everyone and everything that ever did him any wrong.

Thoughts over Ch. 5

After reading Chapter 5 over and over again the one thing that popped out to me was how the germans and the aliens were so similar. It was almost as if they were pronouns for each other. I could seriously see them being switched out for each other. Its like the aliens could have been the Germans in a past life.

Ch. 5 - simile

In chapter 5 billy explains that the aliens do not just see the universe as a bunch of stars and planets. They see everything that has been and will be formed. Billy compares it to spaghetti. Then, he goes on to explain what the human race looks like according to the tralfamadorians. "They see them as great millepedes -'with babies' legs at one end and old people's legs at the other," (Vonnegut 87). That simile that he used to explain how we look according to aliens was really interesting. I thought it was really interesting how they're looking at our species as a whole rather than looking at each and everyone of us as different individuals.

Ch. 4 thoughts

When I was reading this chapter all i could think about was the movie Jurassic Park 3. The owner of the park invites his grandchildren to the park and shows them how he has discovered how to bring the dinosaurs back to life. At this moment he shows them the mosquito he has trapped in the amber of his walking stick. That mosquito in the amber reminded me of the moment where Billy got captured. Just like the mosquito, Billy got sucked into the amber trap of the aliens.

Chapter 4 - extended metaphor

On the night of Billy's daughter's wedding, Billy finds himself having a hard time trying to get to sleep. He decides to go wander around the house, until he eventually ends up in backyard. The flying saucer is flying up ahead. Once he is on board, Billy starts asking a series of questions, one of which was 'Why me?' the aliens replied with "Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment" (Vonnegut 77). The aliens were trying to get through to Billy that there is no 'why me' questions in time. They were trying to tell him that everything just is and always will be. They accomplished that by using an extended metaphor, in which they compared Billys capture to a bug getting stuck in amber.

Thoughts over Ch. 3

What stroke me about this chapter was the use of Vonnegut's vocabulary and analogies. He compared bloody snow to raspberry sherbet. That's the second time that he's brought up food related vocabulary and it's only Chapter 3! The use of his vocabulary prints a colorful image in my head of what's going on. It's like he can paint someone's feelings on a canvas, in which the canvas is the person's mind.  

Repetition - Ch. 3

By the middle of this chapter I began to notice that Vonnegut repeats the phrase ' so it goes' A LOT.I often found it lurking by dreadful occurrences in Billy Pilgrim's life. For example on pg 62 "There used to be a dog named Spot but he died. So it goes. " This phrase has been over used so much that I can practically predict where it will show up next. By saying ' So it goes,' Vonnegut is making it seem like these occurrences happen all to frequently in the life of Billy Pilgrim. It makes Billy's life seem rusty and uneventful, like the same things keep happening over and over again.  

Thoughts over Ch. 2

This chapter reminded me of the movie "The Time Traveler's Wife". In the move the main character was given the gift of time travel, except he never knows when he is going to suddenly disappear. My point is is that you never know when something is going to be taken away from you, so enjoy the time you have. According to Billy's daughter the thing that went missing was her father's sanity. She's probably missing that the most. She probably hates seeing her dad talk about being stolen by aliens and shown off in a zoo on another planet that she has never even heard of.

Billy's life as a Motif - CH.2

In chapter two the character Billy Pilgrim comes into play. Billy stroke me a very interesting person. He says he is a time traveler, but the intriguing part about it is that he has no control over his own power. I finally realized after reading Ch. 2 over and over again that Billy Pilgrim's life is a Motif. For example, "He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next"(Vonnegut 23). Billy went on thinking that he was a time traveler who had been caught by aliens and brought to some unknown planet called Tralfamadore. Vonnegut also mentions the word 'ripe' (30), why couldn't he just say 'right'? It made me think that something was growing in the mind of Billy Pilgrim.

Thoughts over Ch. 1

I thought it was quite strange that the main character could not put into words what his experiences were like when he went off to war. Sometimes writers get what they call 'Writer's block', and they have to take some time to explore other ideas other than what they're writing about. This character though didn't have that problem. His main problem was trying to decipher what was going on in his head and at the same time try to record the valuable information on paper.

Narrator's Internal Conflict - Ch. 1

As I was reading chapter one of Slaughter House Five I stumbled across the Internal Conflict of the main character. He is having trouble writing about his past war experiences. The event that he particularly falls over is the one at Dresden. He says, "But not many words about Dresden came from my mind then...And not many words come now, either..."(Vonnegut, 2). I would of thought that he might be able to come up with some words now that he has had time to think about it. The fact that he cannot describe or write about his experiences and adventures reveals to me that this character has some serious internal conflict.