Chapter 10-Novel Structure

As I read the last chapter, I found it interesting that Vonnegut brought himself back into the novel by saying that he was at the inn keeper's stable that the American prisoners of war stayed at after the bombing of Dresden. Throughout the whole book the way the book was set up was all jumbed up. Unlike a traditional novel the book did not follow a specific timeline or order of events. Instead, the novel just jumped back and forth from time periods through Billy's time travel. I think that Vonnegut does this in an attempt to match a major theme of the novel. This theme would be that there is no logic in war. If Vonnegut had not jumbled up the entire book, the normal structure would not match war's absudrity.

Chapter 10-Motif

When Billy Pilgrim begins to work in a corpse mine Vonnegut tells us that "There were hundreds of corpse mines operating by and by. They didn't smell bad at first, were wax museums. But then the bodies rotted and liquefied, and the stink was like mustard gas and roses." Vonnegut used the motif of "mustard gas and roses" once alreaady earlier in the novel when his describing what his breath is like when he has been drinking. By using this motif in both the first and the last chapter of the novel, Vonnegut creates an otherwise unseen connection between Billy Pilgrim and himself.

Chapter 9-Rumfoord the older cousin?

When Billy Pilgrim is in the hospital in Vermont after the plane crash and his roommate, Rumfoord, is reading articles about the destruction of Dresden he acts kind of like an older cousin. When Rumfoord is reading these articles Billy chimes in and simply says "I was there." Rumfoord does not believe him and says he has echolalia, a disease where the mentally unstable repeat what those around them say. This is like an older cousin because when you are young you always want to hang out with the big kids and do what the big kids do. When you do get to hang with the older kids and you find something you have done that your older cousin cannot you always tell them because it makes you feel cool to do something that kids older than you cannot do. Your cousins usually woud simply say "Yeah whatever!" or "Ok let see it!". This reminds me of Rumfoord because he did not believe Billy was in Dresden and he just tried to ignore him until he found out he really was there.

Chapter 9-Imagery

When Billy's wife Valencia learned that Billy had been in a plane crash she was hysterical and caused a wreck of her own by slamming on her brakes of the interstate. The Mercedes that slammed into the back of her Cadillac El Dorado Coupe de Ville incurred little damage except for a shattered headlight, however, Valencia's Cadillac was destroyed. Vonnegut says "The rear end of the Cadillac were a body-and-fender man's wet dream. The trunk and fenders were collapsed. The gaping trunk looked like the mouth of a village idiot explaining that he did not know anything about anything. The fenders shrugged. The bumper was at a high port arms. The back window was veined with cracks. The exhaust system rested on the pavement." Vonnegut's use of imagery in describing Valencia's car creates a vivid image of what the back of Valencia's destroyed car looked like. Without the use of this viid imagery I probably would have thought that the cars were just in a fender-bender but the Cadillac was actually probably totaled.

Chapter 8-Dresden or Hiroshima?

When Vonnegut described Dresden after it was bombed I was reminded of the bombing of Hiroshima and the book Hiroshima. Vonnegut says that "The sky was black with smoke. The sun was an angry little pinhead. Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals . . . Everybody ele in the neighborhood was dead." When Hiroshima was bombed with the atom bomb almost everything was destroyed. Buildings were crushed, trees and grass were burned, and 66,000 people tragically lost their lives. Vonnegut's description of Dresden after it was bombed sounds very similar to this because of the amount of destruction that occured and by the large number of lives lost. This makes me wonder why the United States would take the lives of these two cities within months of eachother. In his description, Vonnegut makes the two bombings sound very similar relative to the destruction they caused.

Chapter 8-Metaphor

When Howard W. Campbell Jr. comes to recruit American prisoners of war for "The Free American Corps" the idea of going to fight as a Nazi against the Russians does not appeal to any of the Americans. Campbell even offers the Americans who do join "The Free American Corps" a steak dinner but this still does not change the minds of any of the starving and sick Americans. In response to this the high school teacher Edgar Derby stands up and Vonnegut describes his stance by saying "His stance was that of a punch-drunk fighter." Derby refutes the idea of "The Free American Corps" by saying that this is not what the American government preaches. The American governement says that everyone deserves freedom and fair play and that the Americans will crush Nazism. The metaphor that Vonnegut uses by describing Edgar Derby's stance as that of a punch drunk fighter reveals to us how sick the Americans really are. A punch-drunk fighter can hardly stand up and if they are able to stand up they would be very unstable. If this is how Derby stands the Americans must be so hungry and sick that the can hardly stand meaning that they are in pretty terrible condition.

Chapter 7-Dreams

For some reason when I read chapter 7 the movie The Wizard of Oz came to mind. After Billy had brain surgery for three hours he dreamed for two days straight. This reminds me of when Dorothy dreams during The Wizard of Oz and her dream becomes the whole movie. To me, this seems to be what is happening in the book at this point. As we read it is not totally clear what the present time, we must just read every time period like it is it's own story and put together a mental timeline of what has happened throughout the course of Billy's life. This chapter also leads me to believe that Billy is not actually traveling through time, but instead he is just dreaming and reliving the moments of his past.

Chapter 7-Motivation

As Billy Pilgrim is on the plane that is supposed to fly to an optometrists convention in Montreal, he closes his eyes and goes back in time to 1944. We know however that the plane will crash killing almost everyone aboard except for Billy. Vonnegut says that "Billy, knowing the plane was going to crash pretty soon, closed his eyes, traveled back in time to 1944." This sentence from the book reveals Billy's motivation to close his eyes. Billy closed his eyes because he knew that the plane was going crash and he probably did not want to see Sugarbush Mountain racing toward him. Billy falling asleep also allows Vonnegut to take Billy Pilgrim back one more time to Billy's experience with the Three Musketeers. Without knowing of characters motivations throughout this book I think I would probably be really confused.  

Chapter 6-"Listen"

Vonnegut uses the word "listen" a few times throughout the novel to help direct our attention to the coming changes in the novel. Vonnegut starts both Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 with the word "listen" and he does this to bring to our attention to the fact that we are about to learn something important or to focus ou attention to that section of the book so that we do not miss an important change. Vonnegut using these words reminds me of teachers and also of my parents. When explainging assignments teachers use this word to get our attentioin when they are about to say something very important about that particular assignment. Our parents use these words when we are in trouble and they want us to listen to them so that they can tell us what we did wrong and how to do better next time. I think Vonnegut's choice of the word "listen" instead of words like "look" was very wise because "listen" seems to be a general word for people to use to teach a lesson or someting of some significance about everyday life.

Chapter 6-Dramatic Irony

After the Americans had been with the Englishman for some time they were informed in a meeting in the theater that they would be moving to Dresden. As the Englishmen told the Americans how much they envied them for being able to go to Dresden, they told them that they would be safe in Dresden. They told them "You needn't worry about bombs by the way. Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance." For the reader this quote creates dramatic irony because we know more than the Englishman who told them they were safe. We know that Dresden will be bombed because Billy knew this from his time travels and has told us, but the Englishman did not kow this so he thought they would be better off where they were going.

Chapter Five-Kilgore Trout

After I had read chapter five I began to wonder if Kilgore Trout was a real author and I discovered that Kilgore never really existed but the character alluded to one of Vonnegut's friends whose name was Theodore Sturgeon. Right off the bat when I heard the name I could not help but to laugh at the fact that Vonnegut kept a type of fish in the name because he found it amusing that a person had the name of an aniimal. I also learned that Sturgeon was a science-fiction atuhor just like Kilgore Trout. As I read more I learned that Sturgeon was also very unpopular and wrote many books but slipped into obscurity and he was financially unsuccessful just as Kilgore Trout did. These similarities between Trout and Sturgeon lead me to believe that Vonnegut definitely used his real life as an inspiration for everything Billy Pilgrim does and for everyone Billy Pilgrim meets.

Chapter 5-Simile

In chapter five after the American prisoners of war had gotten out of the shower they were forced to take as they got out of the boxcar, Vonnegut describes the hunger of the Americans by saying "Lazzaro wasn't thinking about vengeance. He was thinking about his terrible bellyache. His stomach had shrunk to the size of a walnut. That dry, dry shriveled pouch was as sore as a boil." This simile between Lazzaro's shrunken stomach and a boil reveals to us how hungry the American's actually are. Lazzaro, who seems to be one of the tougher Americans, cannot think of anything but his shriveled stomach and how bad that his stomach hurts. Vonnegut compares this to a boil because when a person gets a boil somewhere on their body they become very selfish and they do not want to do anything but get rid of that boil. This is similar to the situation Lazzaro was put in because he was supposed to be avenging Roland Weary by killing Billy Pilgrim but cannot even think about doing this because he is so distracted by his aching stomach and how much he wants food to get rid of that aching stomach.

Chapter 4-BLue and Ivory

In the fourth chapter we begin to see Vonnegut's repetition of colors starting with the colors blue and ivory. Vonnegut tells us that Billy Pilgrim's feet are blue and ivory when Pilgrim is writing a letter about his trip to Trafaldamore in his basement and his feet seem to turn blue and ivory simply because of the fact that he is cold. Billy's feet also turn blue and ivory when he gets out of bed to meet the Trafaldamorians in his backyard. As I thought about the colors they seemed to remind me of the coldness of death. When Billy's feet turn these colors it reminds us how close Billy always is to death and also they simply reminds us of the recurring theme of death throughout the book. The colors also seem to occur only when he the Trafaldamorians and the supernatural world appear in the book. To me this seems almost like a message to Billy from Trafaldamore that remind Billy that the Trafaldamorians are always watching and studying Billy and the rest of the human race.

Chapter 4-Themes

Toward the end of chapter 4 Billy comments that the Trafaldamorians do not seem to believe in free will as the Trafaldamorian keeps saying that every living thing is a bug in the amber of time. The Trafladamorian answers saying "If I hadn't spent so much time studying Earthlings, I wouldn't have any idea what was meant by 'free will.' . . . Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." This brings to light the possibility that free will is only an illusion. if you look at Billy Pilgrim for example he has no free will. He cannot control anything that occurs in his life therefore he has no free will. Things such as Billy being drafted into the war refute the reality of free will. Is there really free will in our daily lives or is it an illusion?

Chapter 3-Humor in Quotes

As I read the third chapter I could not help but laugh reading the quote from the plaque on Billy's office wall at the Lion's Club. The plaque says "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change , courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to know the difference." I have heard this prayer before and I did not find it humorous. However in this situation I do find it humorous. The fact that Billy has this hanging on a plaque on his wall is very ironic considering the fact that we know that he has no control over anything in his life right now as he jumps back and forth in time. Billy does not have control over when he will change time frames again and he also has no control over what will be happening when he gets to the time frame. I found this prayer from the third chapter very humorous just because of the ironic situation that arises as a result of the quote.

Chapter 3-Direct Characterization

In chapter three we first begin to learn of Billy Pilgrim's unstable mental health he has experienced since the war. After Billy fell asleep with a patient during an eye exam Billy, Vonnegut tells us what Billy Pilgrim is thinking when he awakes  from his nap during the appointment by saying "It had been funny at first. Now Billy was starting to get worried about it, about his mind in general. He tried to remember how old he was, he couldn't. He tried to remember what year it was. He couldn't remember that either." From this quote we learn that Billy Pilgrim's mental state of mind is really starting to make a turn for the worst. After he woke from his nap he didn't know how old he was or what the date was. If Billy has forgotten these basic things, I wonder what other important things in his life he has forgotten.

Chapter 2- "So it goes"

Vonnegut uses the phrase "So it goes" every time death occurs throughout the book. I believe this is a reference to his trip to Tralfamadore when he learned that the Trafalmadorians see death as an illusion. They believe that the dead person is still very much alive in the past. The phrase also allows Vonnegut to make a transition to another subject without having to tell the entire story of how the person died. By saying this, Vonnegut is basically trying to say that these things such as death will happen and they stink but we must live through them and everything will be okay as it always is.

Chapter 2- Foil character

Throughout the second chapter Vonnegut emphasizes the differences between Billy Pilgrim and Roland Weary. Throughout the chapter we see that Weary is the foil character to Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut says that " Weary has every piece of equipment he has ever been issued; every present he has received from home: helmet, helmet liner, wool cap, scarf gloves,. . .trench knife, shelter half, blanket, bulletproof bible, and multiple pamphlets." This contrasts to Billy as Vonnegut says "Billy wearing a thin field jacket, a shirt and trousers of scratchy wool, and long underwear that was soaked with sweat . . .He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo." Through these quotes Vonnegut shows the differences of the two soldiers. Weary has everything that a soldier needs: weapons, camouflage clothing, and shelter. Billy has nothing that a soldier needs. He does not have any weapons, shelter, or special clothing. Throughout the second chapter, Roland Weary becomes the perfect foil character of Billy Pilgrim.  

Chapter 1- Post 2

I found it interesting as I read the first chapter how Vonnegut made connections to the average person's everyday life. By doing this, Vonnegut made the story more engaging and interesting as we are able to relate to the things that occur in his everyday life. The first connection that Vonnegut makes to the average person's
everyday life is the fact that he cannot remember the past as crystal clear as he thought that he did. Vonnegut wants to write a novel about the destruction of Dresden during World War II but when he begins to think back he realizes how little he actually remembers and therefore must employ the help of his friend O'Hare. This reminds me of the average person's life because it seems that when someone begins to tell a story of something that happened to them in the past they must first stop and think about the experience before they can tell the story and some of the time they even forget the experience all together. Vonnegut makes an attempt to connect to our everyday lives by telling us how he talks to his dog when no one else is around. He explains that he lets the dog know how much he likes him and he says that his dog does not mind the smell of his breath after he has been drinking. This relates to the average person's life because almost everyone talks to their pet when there is no one else to talk to and the pet does not care how the person looks or smells, but instead they are just happy because they are getting attention. These connections are what are making the book so interesting as they allow the average person to relate to Vonnegut's life.  

Chapter One-Hyperbole

The hyperbole that Vonnegut expresses through "a million laughs" that he shared with his friend O'Hare foreshadows the many humorous stories that are to come later in the novel. Vonnegut says that O'Hare and himself could not remember any stories about the war or Dresden so they casually begin to talk about things that do not relate to the war. However when Vonnegut says "Recently I went back to Dresden with my friend O'Hare. We had a million laughs in Hamburg and West Berlin and East Berlin and Vienna and Salzburg and Helsinki, and in Leningrad, too. It was very good for me, because I saw a lot of authentic backgrounds for stories which I will write later on." an ironic situation arises because we were just told that Vonnegut's conversation with O'Hare did not arouse any memories but it obviously did because after their converstion he had ideas for stories in his novel. This hyperbole emphasizes to the reader how many stories will arise throughout the course of the novel as a result of Vonnegut's time with O'Hare.

I am live!!