Travel Like No One Else

As I read chapter three of Slaughterhouse Five I caught details within it that made me realize that my prediction about the book was wrong. It wasn't going to end up being like a puzzle in which every chapter is a new and somehow random piece, which would in the end come together and show Billy Pilgrim's true story. Even though the Trafalmadorians aren't as mentioned in this chapter as much as they were in the previous one, phrases such as "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present and the future" helps readers infer and make the connection between the Trafalmadorians way of life and Billy's. Also, this chapter is clearly a coherent continuum of chapter two, for the facts and story line are now clearly connected, unlike those of chapter one and two. Another sentence that caught my attention was "There was a crippled man down there, as spastic in space as Billy Pilgrim was in time." It was another piece of evidence proving that the book was definitely about the relationship Billy Pilgrim has with time. Although in a way it's hard to keep track of what year he is in because of details like "His daughter Barbara was about to get married and she and his wife had gone downtown to pick out patterns for her crystal and silverware" which tells us who's around. Last time we heard anything about Billy's wife, she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning while Billy recovered from his air plane accident, at the beginning of chapter two.


"There was a tiny white plume of smoke at infinity. There was a battle down there. People were dying there. So it goes." In context, two German citizens find it entertaining to film the incoming of humiliated American prisoners, but with that semi-paragraph, the author is telling us how they find it even more interesting and maybe even fun, the thought that they can see the smoke from a battle field far away. The sentence "Now they were going to take prisoners into Germany's interior" followed by "Flashlight beams danced crazily" explains how good the German's must have felt for coming home victorious from war. "Beams danced crazily" are words that resemble movements made by those who are happy and excited. This demonstrates the cruelty that war causes. To be celebrating for the death and pain of so many might as well condemn you to eternal fire, regardless of who or why you did so.