Slaughterhouse-Five is based partly on Vonnegut’s own experiences and observations as a soldier in World War II. Captured by the German army, he was in a meat locker underground when the city of Dresden was bombed by Allied planes, killing 25,000 or more people in a matter of hours. Directed by George Roy Hill. With Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans. A man named Billy Pilgrim tells the story of how he became unstuck in time and was abducted by aliens.
Summary
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Among the things Billy Pilgrim couldnot change were the past, the present, and the future. Imperial god emperor novel updates.
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Weary and Billy’s captors, a small group of German irregulars,take their valuables and discover an obscene photograph in Weary’s pocket.As Billy lies in the snow, he sees an image of Adam and Eve in thepolished boots of the commander. Weary must surrender his bootsto a young German soldier, whose wooden clogs he receives in exchange.The two Americans are brought to a house full of other captives.Billy falls asleep and wakes up in 1967, inthe middle of administering an eye examination. We learn that hehas been falling asleep at work lately. He finishes with the patientand tries unsuccessfully to interest himself in an optometry article.
Billy closes his eyes and is once more a prisoner. Heis roused and ordered to move. He joins a steady stream of POWsmarching in the road outside. A German war photographer stages acapture scene of Billy emerging from a bush, surrendering to armedGermans. Billy slips back into 1967. He isdriving on his way to a Lions Club luncheon through Ilium’s blackghetto, still smoldering from recent riots, and then through a sectiongutted for urban renewal. The destruction he sees outside the carreminds him of the scene after the firebombing of Dresden. He drivesa Cadillac with John Birch Society bumper stickers. His son, Robert,is a Green Beret in Vietnam. His daughter, Barbara, is about toget married. He is quite wealthy.
At the Lions Club meeting, a marine major speaks aboutbombing in North Vietnam. Billy has no opinion on this subject.He has a plaque on his office wall that helps guide him throughsuch listlessness. It reads: “God grant me the serenity to acceptthe things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can,and wisdom always to tell the difference.”
After the luncheon, Billy returns to his stately home.He lies down for a nap and finds himself weeping. A bed vibratorcalled “Magic Fingers,” purchased to help Billy fall asleep, jiggleshim while he weeps. He closes his eyes and is back in Luxembourg, marching.The wind makes his eyes water. Weary marches ahead of him, his feetraw and bloody from his ill-fitting clogs. The prisoners march intoGermany and are taken to a railroad yard. A mentally unstable colonelwho has lost his whole regiment asks if Billy is one of his men.The colonel, who likes to be called “Wild Bob,” tells Billy, “Ifyou’re ever in Cody, Wyoming, just ask for Wild Bob!” The soldiersare sorted by rank and placed in crowded boxcars. They must taketurns sleeping and standing, and they pass a helmet as a chamberpot. Billy is separated from Weary. His train does not move fortwo days. When the train begins to roll toward the interior, Billy travelsto the night he is kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians.
Analysis
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Although the Serenity Prayer, inscribed on the plaquein Billy’s optometry office, is an optimistic statement, it is underminedby the text’s comment that “[a]mong the things Billy Pilgrim couldnot change were the past, the present, and the future.” Such a comment playsup Slaughterhouse-Five’s suggestion that any attemptto change life is futile—that prayers and the invocation of supposed higherbeings cannot alter Billy’s immutable past, present, and future.Though Billy enjoys the illusion of free will, since his existenceis characterized by all the components seemingly necessary for happiness—afamily, a comfortable home, and a successful business—life is stillmeaningless for him. What he does not understand until his abductionby aliens in 1967 is that he has no morechosen a wife or a career in optometry than he has chosen to beborn a weakling. Vonnegut wryly lists the past, the present, andthe future as if they were small and inconsequential items on along laundry list detailing everything that neither Billy nor Godcan change.
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At this point in the novel, Billy shows signs of thestrain that comes from the hopelessness of war. He lacks the abilityto control his time-tripping, and he is often overcome by quietbouts of spontaneous and unexplainable weeping. Additionally, hesuffers from severe sleep disorders: he falls asleep in the middleof examining patients, but once he is in bed he needs the help ofa Magic Fingers vibrator to fall asleep. Historically speaking,the trauma of war frequently causes mental disorders in soldierswho return from the front. This was true of soldiers who participatedin World War II as well as in other conflicts. Their symptoms, evidenceof mental illness, are typically characterized as post-traumaticstress disorder. The mental problems that Billy manifests thus lendan undercurrent of unreliability to his perspective.