Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 5 - 6
Billy, confined within his zoo enclosure, immerses himself in the narrative of Valley of the Dolls, the sole terrestrial literature at his disposal. He discovers that Tralfamadorian literature is structured in brief, telegram-esque clusters of symbols, punctuated by stars. Billy’s mind wanders back to two scenes from his childhood during a family trip across the American West, and then to his time in a German prison camp. After the prisoners are cleansed and their garments rid of lice, their identities are recorded in a ledger, marking their official return to life. The American prisoners find themselves sharing quarters with a group of British officers who, due to an oversight, have received surplus provisions. The Brits greet the Americans with a jovial feast, but their merriment quickly turns to revulsion at the pitiful condition of the enlisted men. During a rendition of Cinderella, Billy’s laughter becomes uncontrollable, leading to his removal to the camp’s infirmary. Sedated, he awakens in 1948, in the psychiatric ward of a veterans’ hospital in New York.
In his final year of optometry school, Billy voluntarily commits himself to the mental ward. The aftermath of war has rendered life meaningless to him. Sharing his ward is ex-captain Eliot Rosewater, who introduces Billy to the intriguing yet poorly crafted science-fiction works of Kilgore Trout. During a visit from his mother, Billy hides under a blanket. Back in Germany, Edgar Derby keeps vigil over Billy’s sickbed. Billy recalls Derby’s future execution by firing squad. Billy’s mind then travels back to the veterans’ hospital, where his fiancée, Valencia Merble, is visiting. They engage in a discussion about Kilgore Trout with Rosewater. Billy’s mind then journeys to his geodesic dome in the Tralfamadore Zoo, furnished with Sears Roebuck items. The Tralfamadorians reveal to Billy that humans have seven sexes, all necessary for reproduction. Five of these sexes, active only in the fourth dimension, are imperceptible to Billy. When Billy commends the tranquility of Tralfamadore, the aliens inform him that their planet, like Earth, experiences periods of war and peace. They reveal that they know how the universe will end: in an accident caused by one of their pilots. This event is always the same, reflecting the structure of the moment. They assert that war is as unavoidable on Tralfamadore as it is on Earth.
Billy’s mind then returns to his wedding night with Valencia in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. After their intimate encounter, Valencia queries Billy about the war. He rises and retreats to the bathroom, only to find himself back in his hospital bed in the prison camp. He stumbles to the latrine, where the American soldiers are violently ill. Among them is Kurt Vonnegut. The following morning, Paul Lazzaro is brought to the hospital, unconscious after an unsuccessful theft attempt from an Englishman. A German major reads aloud a monograph by Howard W. Campbell, Jr., an American playwright turned Nazi propagandist, detailing the deplorable condition of American soldiers. Billy falls asleep and awakens in 1968, resuming work on his letter to the newspaper. His daughter, Barbara, reprimands him, notes the chill in the house, and leaves to call the oil-burner man after tucking Billy into bed. Under his electric blanket, Billy’s mind travels to Tralfamadore, just as actress Montana Wildhack arrives, hysterical. She has been brought to Tralfamadore to be Billy’s companion. Over time, she comes to trust him, and they soon become intimate.
Billy awakens in 1968, having just dreamt about Montana Wildhack. The next day, Billy examines a boy whose father has been killed in Vietnam. He shares Tralfamadorian wisdom with the boy, leading the boy’s mother to realize that Billy is mentally unstable. Billy’s daughter is summoned to take him home.
After a night on morphine, Billy awakens at dawn in his prison bed on the day he and the other Americans are to be transported to Dresden. He senses a source of energy near his bed and discovers its origin: two small lumps inside the lining of his overcoat. A telepathic message informs him that these lumps can perform miracles for him if he refrains from investigating them further.
Billy dozes off and awakens later the same morning. With him are Edgar Derby and Paul Lazzaro. The English officers are constructing a new latrine, having abandoned the old one to the sick Americans. The Englishman who assaulted Lazzaro stops by, and Lazzaro informs him that he plans to have the officer killed after the war. He asserts that revenge is the sweetest thing in life. He recounts a time when he fed a dog that had bitten him a steak filled with sharp pieces of metal and watched it die in agony. Lazzaro reminds Billy of Roland Weary’s dying wish and advises him not to answer the doorbell after the war. Billy states that he already knows he will die because a deranged, elderly Lazzaro will fulfill his promise. He has time-traveled to this moment many times and knows that by then, he will have become a messianic figure, delivering a speech about the nature of time to a stadium full of admirers. He will offer them comfort by sharing the understanding that moments last forever and that death is an insignificant reality. He delivers his speech at a baseball park covered by a geodesic dome. It is 1976, and China has dropped a hydrogen bomb on Chicago. The United States has been divided into twenty nations to prevent it from posing a threat to the world. Moments after he predicts his own death and concludes his speech with the words “Farewell, hello, farewell, hello,” Billy is killed by an assassin’s high-powered laser gun. He experiences the violet void of death, then his consciousness swings back into life and to early 1945. Billy claims to have recorded these events on a cassette that he has stored in a safe deposit box in a bank.
Following a lecture on personal hygiene by an Englishman and an election in which Edgar Derby is elected their leader, the Americans are transported to Dresden. Dressed in his fur-satin coat and adorned in cloth scraps and silver boots leftover from the production of Cinderella, Billy appears as the war’s unwitting jester. When the boxcars open, the Americans behold the most beautiful city they have ever seen. “Oz,” remarks Kurt Vonnegut, who is also in the boxcar. Eight pitiful, worn-out German soldiers guard one hundred American prisoners. They are marched through the city to a former slaughterhouse that will serve as their quarters. Billy is captivated by Dresden’s architecture. The city remains relatively unscathed by the war, with industries and recreational facilities still operational. All the citizens are amused by the ragtag parade, except one, who is offended by Billy’s ridiculous appearance. The man is insulted by Billy’s lack of dignity and his apparent reduction of the war to a farce or spectacle.
Analysis
Billy’s journey with the Tralfamadorians introduces him to their unique perception of time and their philosophy of acceptance. The absence of free will and the deterministic nature of each moment leads to a sense of resignation, encapsulated in the phrase “So it goes”. This acceptance, born from revisiting life’s moments countless times, brings Billy solace, especially in the face of the atrocities he has witnessed.
In a paradoxical twist, Billy exercises his free will to propagate the idea of its futility. He extends his optometry practice metaphorically, adjusting humanity’s vision of death and will. However, Billy remains oblivious to the perils of a world devoid of free will, where accountability is absent. This danger is echoed in the words of a German guard and the Tralfamadorians, highlighting the fatalistic worldview shared by Billy and Rosewater in the veterans’ hospital. The whimsical elements of Tralfamadorian culture in Slaughterhouse-Five, such as their plunger-like appearance and Billy’s absurd living quarters, provide a counterbalance to the war’s horrors. Yet, Vonnegut warns of escapism’s consequences through the brutal German soldier’s adoption of the alien philosophy.
Billy embraces the Tralfamadorian counsel to focus on life’s pleasant moments. Despite his lack of control over his temporal displacement, he finds solace in the foreknowledge it provides. His marriage to Valencia, whom he finds unattractive, is an example of this comfort. Billy’s Tralfamadorian revelations raise questions about his mental stability. It’s plausible that Tralfamadore is a figment of his imagination, a coping mechanism born from his inability to live in the present and his uncontrollable time travel. Billy’s sanity may hinge on his redefinition of time’s nature, a concept often deemed insane. Yet, in his mind, Billy finds tranquility. His delusions, while possibly outweighing his war-induced disillusionment, enable him to function in the everyday world.
