Chapter Ten: Poo-tee-weet?

In chapter one, Kurt Vonnegut tells the biblical story about Lot's wife. In a nutshell, Lot's wife was told  not to look back at the city being destroyed. Of course, human instinct kicked in; therefore, she looked back. Lot's wife became a pillar of salt. Ending chapter one on this note is useful for the story's purpose. The gist of the biblical story is not to look back. I believe Billy Pilgrim is crazy to say that he is time-traveling. Personally, I think that he is merely looking back at his life. He is pondering on what could have been and what actually happened. Humans have tendency of being stuck in the past and not looking forward to the future. Once upon a time, "One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, 'Poo-tee-weet?'" (215).  "Poo-tee-weet" is bird language for "So it goes." This phrase is meant to say: "Keep moving on. Yes, this event happened. Move on! Do not ponder in the past, but look forward to the future!" 

Chapter Ten: Narration

    In the Slaughterhouse Five, every chapter, except chapter one, was in third person. In chapter ten, the narration was a mixture of first person and third person. Vonnegut writes, "Now Billy and the rest of were being marched into the ruins by their guards. I was there. O'Hare was there" (212). Kurt Vonnegut's story may have been in first person throughout the whole book. He was telling a story and never really decided to use the word I except in chapter one and chapter ten. I really liked how it ended the story by including his character in the plot at the end of the book. 

Chapter Nine: Through Thick and Thin

    In chapter three, Billy Pilgrim had a framed prayer on the wall of his office. The prayer went like this:

This beautiful prayer helped Billy get through the rough times and to continue living. This prayer gave him motivation to keep trying his best no matter what the circumstances are. In chapter nine, the audience learns where he found this prayer. Vonnegut writes, "There was a silver chain around Montana Wildhack's neck. Hanging from it, between her breasts, was a locket containing a photograph of her alcoholic mother- a grainy thing, soot and chalk" (208). This prayer is like a guiding light. Most people, like me, stress out all the time over a little situation. They need encouragement to get them through a difficult time or a big test they think they will fail. In the end, everything happens for a reason. The important idea is to have the strength to carry on through an obstacle. 

Chapter Nine: Cold Feet

    Motif is a recurring image, word phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work. I notice a reoccurring word during chapter nine: blue. In chapter four, Vonnegut describes Billy Pilgrims feet, "He look down at his bare feet. They were ivory and blue" (72). In chapter six, Vonnegut writes about the dead hobo in the car, "His bare feet were blue and ivory. It was all right, somehow, his being dead. So it goes" (148). Finally in chapter nine, Vonnegut describes Valencia's body color, "Poor Valencia was unconscious, overcome by carbon monoxide. She was a heavenly azure" (183). Vonnegut connects coldness and death with the color blue. Blue is associated with calmness and tranquility. Blue is also used to connect body and mind. I understand why Vonnegut used blue to represent death. Since blue is used to associated equanimity, Vonnegut used blue to represent death because the Tralfamadorians believed, "When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments" (27). Tralfamadorians are calm when it comes to death, which explains their slogan, "So it goes." 

Chapter Eight: "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!"

    The beginning of chapter eight recounts Edgar Derby's speech about freedom and justice. He stands up to Howard W. Campbell, Jr., who was a Nazi hoping to gain support. Derby spoke the truth, "Derby spoke movingly of the American form of government, with freedom and justice and opportunities and fair play for all. He said there wasn't a man there who wouldn't gladly die for those ideals" (164). Derby's little outburst reminded me of Patrick Henry's speech. "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" was about revolting against England. Derby did not wish to enforce war, but both men spoke about patriotism. They were both protecting a land of freedom and opportunities. The "land" the two men spoke passionately about was The United States of America.

Chapter Eight: The Spread of Disease

    A diction is the author's choice of words. Vonnegut has used excellent choice of words, but there was one phrase that I loved. Vonnegut writes, "He spoke of the brotherhood between the American and the Russian people, and how those two nations were going to crush the disease of Nazism, which wanted to infect the whole world" (164). Nazis wanted to spread their belief around the whole world. They wanted everyone to believe in their ideas. During World War II, Nazism was everywhere. There were the famous red flags with the swastika in the middle all over Germany and other countries during the war. Even in America, everyone spoke about the Nazis that were controlling the world. Nazism was globally. Vonnegut described Nazism perfectly. Nazism was a disease that was spread to every person. Like a disease, it has to spread through contact and that was the goal for Nazis: to spread the beliefs to everyone. 

Chapter Seven: That's Too Bad!

Wow! Would people not love to go back in time and change that little mistake they did in the past? The concept of changing the past to fix the future reminds me of the movie: Source Code. The main character tries so hard to change the future of two trains exploding. He does not want all the people in the trains to die. This situation is similar to Billy Pilgirm's problem. Vonnegut writes, "Billy Pilgrim got onto a chartered airplane in Ilium twenty-five years after that. He knew it was going to crash, but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so" (154). If I could go back in time, then I would change an accident so that it would not occur. Why could Billy Pilgrim not change the incident of the plane? Billy Pilgrim could have avoided buying the plane in the first place. There were many incidents in Billy Pilgrim's life that he could have changed when he traveled back in time, but he did not. He is a weak character and is too embarrassed to say that the plane will crash.