Slaughterhouse 5 Report Essay Research Paper SynopsisSlaughterhouseFive

Slaughterhouse 5 Report Essay, Research Paper

Synopsis

Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is the story of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a man who, among other things, lived through the Dresden firebombing during World War II and was abducted by aliens. The novel is told as a non-chronological group of events that make up Billy’s life. The exposition of Slaughterhouse-Five describes Billy as an easy-going man. He never raises his voice as a result of his experiences on Tralfamadore, the alien planet. He is an optometrist born and raised in Ilium, New York. He is married to Valencia, a very loving woman who is devoted to Billy, as shown by her losing weight once they get married in order to look good for Billy.

The narrative hook comes when, at age 22, Billy joins an infantry regiment that is fighting in Luxembourg. During the Battle of the Bulge, the German army destroys this regiment. Billy and three other men, Roland Weary and two unnamed scouts, are left wandering behind German lines. After three days of meandering through Germany, Billy and Roland are separated from the two scouts. The two scouts are shot and killed after being found by the Germans, while Billy and Roland are taken as prisoners of war.

The rising action begins when Billy, as well as many other American prisoners, is loaded into a train heading for eastern Germany. Roland is also on this train, though on a different car. In this car, Roland meets a man named Paul Lazzaro. Paul is a violent and spiteful man. He threatens to have his enemies shot by hired gunman sometime after the war.

Paul and Roland become friends on this train. After a little over a week of transportation, Roland dies of gangrene. Before his death, he tells Paul that the cause for his capture and subsequent death is Billy. Paul vows to the dying man that he will hire a gunman to kill Billy Pilgrim.

Finally, Billy and the rest of the prisoners arrive in Dresden, Germany. Billy is housed in building number five, which had previously been used as a slaughterhouse.

The climax comes when, in this slaughterhouse, Billy witnesses the Dresden firebombing in February of 1945. This bombing killed approximately 135,000 people. Billy is one of the few survivors of the bombing. The falling action begins when Billy is honorably discharged from the army after arriving home in America.

About 25 years later, Billy is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. These aliens are friendly and have a different way of seeing things than humans do. Instead of seeing things in terms of time, they see things as they have happened, are happening, and will happen; they have no concept of time.

Billy leaves the aliens with the ability to travel through time, although not at will. He randomly skips to different events in his life. For this reason, the book is told as non-chronological events, as Billy sees his life. Also, the aliens teach Billy that he cannot change the way things are. For this reason, Billy is a mellow person who does not worry about the events of his life.

Soon after his time on Tralfamadore, Billy is on a plane traveling to an optometry convention in Canada. This plane crashes on Sugarbush Mountain, killing all but two people. One of the survivors is Billy. He is taken to a Vermont hospital in order to recuperate. Valencia, Billy’s wife, is in a minor car accident on the way to see Billy in the hospital. Unknowingly, Valencia drives away from this accident without her exhaust system. Without this, she is exposed to poisonous carbon monoxide and, as a result, dies immediately after arriving at the hospital.

The resolution is in 1976, when Paul Lazzaro carries out his promise by having a gunman shoot and kill Billy. Although Billy would be considered dead by humans, his experiences on Tralfamadore leave him revisiting the events of his life for all eternity.

Figurative Language

“Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment.” (Page 97)

The above metaphor shows how the aliens of Tralfamadore view life. Instead of seeing things as events on a timeline, they see all events as one; they have no concept of time. There is no past, no future, and no present in their eyes. Instead, all events simply exist. As Billy writes, “The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance.” (Page 34) They are able to see that “all moments, past, present, and future always have existed, always will exist.”

This passage compares Billy’s conversation with the aliens, as well as all events, to bugs trapped in amber. Bugs that are caught in amber remain in the amber forever. Nothing ever changes while they are locked in this protective shield. Similarly, the aliens see events as “trapped” in time; they cannot be changed. All of life’s events exist for all eternity. Because of this way of seeing things, they believe in living out happy moments while trying to avoid and forget the sadder ones. Since they cannot change these upsetting times, they try to live around them. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut preaches that this is the best way to live out one’s life, as events cannot be changed.

Protagonist

Billy Pilgrim, the main character of Slaughterhouse-Five, is mild-mannered throughout his life, no matter how ro

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