Character Description
Billy Pilgrim: indifferent, passive, understanding, intelligent
Roland Weary: obnoxious, self-righteous, vengeful, forceful
Edgar Derby: honorable, aged, fatherly, assertive
Valencia Pilgrim: insecure, loving, needy, grateful

1. Should Billy have settled for Valencia because he knew in the end it would turn out okay, or should he have kept searching for someone he truly had feelings for?

2. Through time travel, Billy could jump back and forth through years of his life in a split second. If you were capable of time travel, would you be more interested in revisiting moments in the past, or looking into the future? Why?

3. After Billy was abducted by the Tralfamadorians, for the most part, he was submissive and accepted his kidnapping quite well. Explain why he might not have panicked and how his attitude reflected his outlook on life in general. Would you have resisted the Tralfamadorians right away, or would you calmly wait until they answered your questions? Explain.

Key Passage: From chapter 4, page 93-95 (Billy is explaining how he sees a movie about World War II)
"American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

"The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

"When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again."

Key Passage Explanation
When Billy sees the movie backwards, it ties in the reoccurring time travel that Billy experiences, and the author’s views against war. Instead of hurting and killing, the American and German fighter pilots "made everything and everybody as good as new." It seems as though the way Billy is viewing the movie is how he wishes the events took place. The passage helped me understand how wars don’t just affect the people who are fighting in them. It could have been my grandmother, mother, or even myself putting together such destructive weapons, or as Billy sees it, "separating the dangerous contents into minerals." Such dangerous materials should be hid "cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again." To me the passage also revealed that the people in the world shouldn’t need to kill, but rather, help each other to become better physically and emotionally.

Recommendation
I recommend Slaughterhouse-Five to anyone interested in both peace and war. The book contains descriptions of living conditions inside a prisoner of war camp and the effects that war can have on its soldiers. Slaughterhouse-Five isn’t a typical anti-war book however, ridiculous situations concerning the Tralfamadorians’ zoo habitat for Billy, and the soldiers in the POW camp would be enjoyed by anyone with a sense of humor. The book made me address how I feel about war, how America treats its war veterans, and made me think about my position on treating other human beings from all backgrounds with decency.