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Explanation of the novel's title




When the book was released, the bombing of Dresden was not widely known and was rarely discussed by veterans and historians. The book led to an increased awareness of the bombings and a reevaluation of the justifications given for aerial bombing of cities by the Allies during the war.

Slaughterhouse-Five is set in the 20th century. It intertwines the story of Billy Pilgrim through different time periods, most notably his experience in World War II and his relationships with his family. The book is a series of seemingly random happenings that, in combination, present the thematic elements of the novel.

"Slaughterhouse-Five" refers to the slaughterhouse (named Schlachthof Fünf in the novel) in which the main character, Billy Pilgrim, stays as a POW in Dresden during the firebombing. (This parallels Vonnegut's own experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden.) Vonnegut, as he does in some of his other works such as Breakfast of Champions, uses an alternative title for the book; in this case it is The Children's Crusade. He explains this in the first chapter as referring to the Children's Crusade of the 13th century, in which children were sold as slaves (the facts of the actual historical event are disputed, but for literary purposes, the purposeful selling of children into slavery is the intended meaning). This is used to duplicate war which, in Vonnegut's opinion, is comparable to the sale of children into slavery.

A disoriented and ill-trained American soldier named Billy Pilgrim is captured by German soldiers and is forced to live in a makeshift prison, the deep cellars of a disused slaughterhouse in the city of Dresden, Germany. Billy has become "unstuck in time" for unexplained reasons (though it's hinted towards the end that his surviving a plane crash left him with mild brain damage) so he randomly and repeatedly visits different parts of his life, including his death. He meets, and is later kidnapped by, aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who exhibit him in a Tralfamadorian zoo with Montana Wildhack, a pornographic movie star. The Tralfamadorians see in four dimensions, the fourth dimension being time. Tralfamadorians have seen every instant of their lives already; they cannot choose to change anything about their fate, but can choose to focus on any moment in their lives that they wish.

Throughout the novel, Billy hops back and forth in time, reliving various occasions in his life; this gives him a constant sense of stage fright, as he never knows what part of his life is coming up next. He spends time on Tralfamadore; in Dresden; numbly wading through deep snow in WWII Germany before his capture; living married in America after the war; up to the moment of his murder on Earth many years later. By the time of his murder, Billy has adopted Tralfamadorian fatalism, which has given him great personal peace; he has spread this philosophy to millions of humans and has become a popular public figure on Earth.

Billy's fatalism appears to be grounded in reality (at least in the reality which Billy perceives); after noting that Billy had a copy of the Serenity Prayer in his office, the narrator says, "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future." One of his Tralfamadorian captors, who seems sympathetic to humans, says that out of 31 inhabited planets it has visited, "only on Earth is there any talk of free will."

The book examines many other events in Billy's life, including the death of his wife, his capture by the Nazis in World War II, and the infamous bombing of Dresden that was the inspiration for the book. The novel uses certain phrases repetitively, such as "so it goes"—which, used whenever death or dying is mentioned (be it that of a man, an animal, or the bubbles in champagne), serves to downplay mortality, making it routine and even humorous—and "mustard gas and roses", to denote the horrible odor of a rotting corpse or a drunk's breath.

Billy's death is the result of a strange string of events. Billy was an incredibly inept fighter, which, according to fellow soldier Roland Weary, led to the capture of both. Because Weary blames Billy for his capture (and eventual death), Weary's morbid friend Lazzaro vows to have him killed, as, according to him, revenge is "the sweetest thing in life." Billy, who travels in time, already knows where and how he will be killed: Lazzaro has him shot after a public speaking event in a future where the United States has been balkanized. During Billy's public speech he declares that following his lecture he will be killed, so he uses this fact to convey his message that because time is another dimension all three-dimensional slices as we know them exist simultaneously. Therefore, everyone is always alive and death is not a tragic event.




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