Socratic Seminar Slaughterhouse Five

How does the Vonneguts time shifting technique affect the understanding of the novel? Is there any advantage of structuring the slaughter house five in the teleporting manner?

There is a linear story that emerges from the time shifting details of the novel. There is the story of Billy,? who makes his own way through time travel across the era of World War 2 toward the Dresden and show the scene of destruction. Whenever we came to the thread of the narrator, it gets unfold in the chronological manner.

There are wild zigzags of Billys life. Vonnegut feeds the storys emotional momentum with the transitions between time shifting. The story might be schizophrenic, but it is not the random one. On the one hand, death strikes indiscriminately, and we never know who will be the next victim. But, on the other hand, the maximum volume of seemingly random deaths adds up to the emotional weight.

Discuss the consequences of the Tralfamadorian views of the universe.

Things always happen in their own way, and no one can change the future and happenings. But, the concept of the change is very difficult for the Tralfamadorian. According to them, free will is only a bizarre fiction which is discussed on the earth, where people are not able to see in four dimensions. All the time is fixed, but each and every moment is always accessible for the Tralfamadorians, so this is easy for them to pick and choose whatever they wanted to experience. Each moment exist forever.There is no wasting of time in blame and the punishment. Billy never blames any one for, whatever he sees in the Dresden. What he experiences in the war, or for the death of the wife. He accepts all the things happen as they happen.

Elaborate the relationships between content and structure of? the slaughter house five?

The skipping timeline of the novel presents the effective method of representing the mans inability to live a normal life after experiencing the warfare. We experience the Billy?s life as he does things without any suspense or any logical order.The novel starts with the youth full Billy Pilgrim and follows him to the old age. Billy adopts the Tralfamadorian because it is the only way by which he can hold on the loose grip over time. He was left, after the war. To follow the Billy, the narrator follows the same attitude. A Tralfamadorian novel contains urgent, discrete messages describing scenes and the situations. The author of carefully chooses the messages so that, when they are seen all, they form the profound image of the life. Otherwise, there is no relationship between them. There is no starting, no middle, no climax, or no end.

What does the story of Gomorrah and Sodom have to do with the Vonnegut’s story about the Dresden?

The destruction of Dresden is reminds about the Gomorrah and Sodom. There are two cities and both of them toppled to the ground. The narrator, Vonnegut, compares himself to the Lot’s wife. Vonnegut says that this is why the book, Dresden, was the failure in being human, he lost the humanity.

From where the title slaughter house five come?

Slaughter house five has different meanings in the term of novel. The name of the prison in which the Billy and other prisoners of war were kept was Slaughter House Five. Slaughter house five is also the metaphor as the Vonnegut sees the war. It is also the experience of Vonnegut which he experience during the world war 2nd.

Why does Billy get confused when the skiers arrived to rescue him?

Due to the language of the skiers, Billy got confused as they were speaking in German. Therefore, he is not getting able to realize his location and he believed that they had to do something in the world war 2nd. The people who reached first at the location of crashing plane were Austrian instructors but they were speaking in German.

Why did Billy make the imaginary planet, Tralfamadore?

Billy imagines a new planet named Tralfamadore, especially since Billy begins reading the Kilgore Trout’s science fiction. At that stage in which he was losing the grip on the reality. In my view, Billy imagines that plane for the things which he is not able to understand.

Tell the meaning of the last line of the novel “Poo-tee-weet?”

Poo-tee-weet is a phrase only that are used for the words that cannot be answered or question or described.

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