Post #12: Sweet Revenge

Chapter 6

"'Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is-' said Lazzaro, 'it's revenge.'" (page 139)

                                    

Like Lazzaro, many people today find revenge to be sweet.  If someone gets hurt by another person, they want that person to feel the same pain they felt.  It's just how our minds work.  We automatically feel the need to get back at the people who hurt us.  There is even a TV show called "Revenge." It's not a very good thing to feel or act on, but we feel it anyway because we are human. 

Post #11: A Motif

Chapter 6

In Slaughterhouse-Five, there are many deaths that occur.  After referring to a death, Vonnegut writes the sentence "So it goes."  This motif is stated after every death, whether it be accidental, intentional, or natural.  Death is an unstoppable force.  The repetition of this motif expresses and points out the inevitability of death. Everyone will die someday.  So it goes.

Post #10: Glamorization of War

Chapter 5

                                   "They made war look stylish and reasonable, and fun." (page 94)

In many movies today, war is glamorized.  People would rather see a happy, and usually unrealistic, side of war rather than the horrific truth.  Many would rather be blind to it and kept in the dark than see the harsh reality of where our soldiers go to, how destructive war is, how many people die, and the different cruel ways to harm innocent people.  

                                       

Post #9: A Metaphor for Time

Chapter 5

"But among them was this poor Earthling, and his head was encased in a steel sphere which he could never take off.  There was only one eyehole through which he could look, and welded to that eyehole were six feet of pipe." (page 115)

In this very long chapter, Billy is displayed in a simulated Earthling habitat in a zoo on Tralfamadore.  The above metaphor is how the Tralfamadorian guide explained how Billy sees time.  While the Tralfamadorians can see all things in all times, Billy can only see one thing at one time.  This metaphor helped to better understand how the Tralfamadorians perceive time by imagining looking at a mountain range and seeing all these different things, while Billy, and all humans for that matter, can only see one thing.

                                     

Post #8: Free Will

Chapter 4

                 "Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." (page 86)

Free will is an integral part of human's beliefs of life.  We all believe we control each of our actions, and that those actions determine our fate.  We all have the freedom to choose how we behave, what we do, and who we hang out with.  We believe each set of actions leads to a different outcome, and we all strive to pick the best and perfect ones that will lead to our desired future.

                                                            

Post #7: Simile of Bugs in Amber

Chapter 4

"That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim.  Why you?  Why us for that matter?  Why anything?  Because this moment simply is.  Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?" (page 76-77)

This simile between moments in life and bugs trapped in amber really explains the Tralfamadorians beliefs.  There is no why, each moment simply is.  Just like bugs in amber, we are trapped in the moment.  Each moment is set in stone, and humans simply move from moment to moment, trapped in each one.

                                           

Post #6: Frequently Asked Question

Chapter 3

                    "He asked himself this: 'Where have all the years gone?'" (page 57)

Fountain of Youth

Many people ask themselves this question.  Time flies fast, and we can't do anything to stop it.  People in history have searched for the Fountain of Youth in hopes of getting back those lost years.  It feels like just yesterday I was starting high school as a young freshman, but here I am, three weeks away from starting my junior year.  Time does fly by quickly, and I believe we all, at some point in our life, will utter the question                                                                                        "Where have all the years gone?"

                                                                                                        

Post #5: An Analogy

Chapter 3

"Billy drove through a scene of even greater desolation.  It looked like Dresden after it was fire-bombed-- like the surface of the moon." (page 59)

                                           

Throughout this chapter, Billy time travels many times.  One time he is driving to a Lions Club meeting  in his Cadillac.  The area he was driving through was emptied and ready for urban renewal.  Billy used the analogy of Dresden and the moon to compare and describe the similarities of the two to the gutted and desolate area.

Post #4: Human Companionship

Chapter 2

"It was entirely Billy's fault that his fighting organization no longer existed, Weary felt, and Billy was going to pay." (page 51)

Everyone desires human companionship.  Nobody likes to be left alone.  Most people feel safer with a wing man.  Weary's feelings of rage and anger toward Billy at the end of this chapter were completely relatable.  I, personally, always feel safer with people around me.  The saying "safety in numbers" comes to mind.  If someone did something to take away my feeling of safety and security and have those around me abandon me, I would be very angry, too.

                                                          

                                                       

Post #3: A Characterization of Billy Pilgrim

  

Chapter 2

In this chapter, we meet Billy Pilgrim, a man who travels between different times in his life.  He meets the Tralfamadorians who can see in four dimensions, while a human can only see in three.  He learned from these aliens that a person only appears to die, because that person is still alive in the past.

"Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'so it goes.'" (page 27)

In this quote, we learn that Billy has developed a strange outlook on death that he learned from these creatures.  Instead of crying and mourning death like most people do, Billy gives a sort of mental shrug, and says "So it goes."  In his mind, they only die in this one moment out of thousands of moments in one's life.                                                                     

                             

Post #2: Anti-Glacier Book

Chapter 1

"You know what I say to people when I hear they're writing anti-war books?"   "No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?"   "I say 'Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?'" (page 3)

This dialogue stuck out to me because it puts emphasis on the permanent existence of war.  Just as glaciers will always be around, war will always be in our society.  No matter what people say, or however many movies and books come out and depict the horrific violence of war, it will always be here.  Just as the quote says, writing an anti-war book would be just as effective as writing an anti-glacier book.  Even though many people disapprove of war and write about it, war will never go away.  It will always remain a permanent fixture, just like glaciers.

                                          

Post #1: Allusion to Lot's Wife

Chapter 1

"And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human." (page 21-22)

Vonnegut uses the allusion of Lot's wife to identify himself.  Instead of leaving the past and moving to the future, he dwells on it.  Just like Lot's wife looked back toward the destroyed city, Vonnegut looks back on a destroyed time filled with much violence and death.

Lot's wife also alludes to most people today.  As Vonnegut stated, it was human of Lot's wife to look back.  Looking back towards the past and all past mistakes and sins is easier for many people than looking toward an unknown and scary future.