"Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street. The trees were leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped. Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, 'Poo-tee-weet?' "
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 215
Okay, time for an overall blog about Slaughterhouse-Five.
I really liked the book. It was very interesting - I've never read a book that combined time travel, war, and alien abduction - and it wasn't tedious to read. I really found myself enjoying it throughout even though we were supposed to analyze it. The structure was frustrating at times, especially in the beginning when it was hard to grasp the order and concepts, but it really added some unique qualities to the novel. I'm gonna be honest though, I still don't really know what the plot was; it seemed to be more of a memoir than a book with a clear purpose and climax.
I think that was what I struggled with the most while reading - it didn't seem like there was any point to the book. I mean, it was entertaining, but what was changed or achieved in the end? I don't think I've ever read something where the main character didn't want to attain something or fix a problem. It was just... different.
The ending also particularly frustrated me. There's a lot of action and a lot of things we ascertain from the bombing of Dresden in the last two chapters - and then it just ends? What the heck?? I guess that follows the structure of the book though; it's choppy and sporadic. I just thought there may be an "aha" moment at the end where everything clicked and made sense. That dissatisfaction and lack of resolution is really frustrating. But then again, what was there to resolve? I don't know.
Well, that was a pretty good book. Goodbye, blog readers! Enjoy your summer and have a lovely life hereafter.
Showing posts with label Slaughterhouse-Five. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slaughterhouse-Five. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Change - Novel Blog 5 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
"Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 23
Okay, so I know that Billy has no way to stick himself back in time, but it seems like he isn't doing anything to try to provoke any change at all. He says he has to act in whatever part of his life he is in, but does he really? This is my question. Is Billy limited to a certain, predestined life that he must live a particular way, or could he change his actions? What if he did something completely drastic during the war that changed the whole course of his future? Is that going to be a plot later in the book? He has a mediocre life, but could he have done something differently to make it better? He could at least make it interesting, even if the repercussions were severe and negative. I don't know. I just think his lack of resistance is unsettling. I want him to do something different.
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 23
Okay, so I know that Billy has no way to stick himself back in time, but it seems like he isn't doing anything to try to provoke any change at all. He says he has to act in whatever part of his life he is in, but does he really? This is my question. Is Billy limited to a certain, predestined life that he must live a particular way, or could he change his actions? What if he did something completely drastic during the war that changed the whole course of his future? Is that going to be a plot later in the book? He has a mediocre life, but could he have done something differently to make it better? He could at least make it interesting, even if the repercussions were severe and negative. I don't know. I just think his lack of resistance is unsettling. I want him to do something different.
Chaos. Confusion. No Chronological Order Whatsoever - Novel Blog 4 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
"Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 23
Prepare for my rant blog. *
Can we please read just one book or poem or short story or some other piece of literature that's chronological? Is it that hard to find a novel with literary merit that follows a secure timeline and progresses naturally? It's not even that the book is out of order that bothers me so much - I can handle that. It's the fact that you think you are reading something important and then you are completely thrown into a different time that is wholly unrelated. And let me tell you, it has been just peachy filling out my setting section of note taking. I'm just wondering if there is even a point to the order of the events or if they are random. Probably the latter. At this point in my senior year, I just want a simple, shallow book that takes a limited amount of brain cells to understand and analyze. Unfortunately, I don't think that's an option in this class....
*If you are a student reading this for our discussion class, just save yourself the trouble and skip this blog.
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 23
Prepare for my rant blog. *
Can we please read just one book or poem or short story or some other piece of literature that's chronological? Is it that hard to find a novel with literary merit that follows a secure timeline and progresses naturally? It's not even that the book is out of order that bothers me so much - I can handle that. It's the fact that you think you are reading something important and then you are completely thrown into a different time that is wholly unrelated. And let me tell you, it has been just peachy filling out my setting section of note taking. I'm just wondering if there is even a point to the order of the events or if they are random. Probably the latter. At this point in my senior year, I just want a simple, shallow book that takes a limited amount of brain cells to understand and analyze. Unfortunately, I don't think that's an option in this class....
*If you are a student reading this for our discussion class, just save yourself the trouble and skip this blog.
So It Goes. (Mantra) - Novel Blog 3 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
"So it goes."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, just about every other page in the book
When novels have mantras, it's pretty clear that the author is hinting at some kind of theme or main point. The mantra in Slaughterhouse-Five is "so it goes," and you can find that quote on just about any page in the book.
The quote is found after every time something unfortunate happens, usually a death. One may think that it is really ironic, and I guess in a way it is, but the message behind it is completely serious.
Throughout the book, I've been picking up a mood of resignation and acceptance of the inevitable. I think that that may be a theme. Billy is so accepting of all the crap that's happened to him. I mean if I were abducted by aliens and kept jumping around in time, I would probably have questions, if not some concerns.
But anyway, the mantra represents this theme because it's simple, straightforward nature mirrors that of the perspective that "death is something I and everybody else cannot control; that is how the world works and the sooner we can deal with that, the sooner we can live the life we possess at the moment." It's a little harsh, but given the conditions Billy is under where he never knows who he will be with next or even what year it will be, it makes sense in context.
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, just about every other page in the book
When novels have mantras, it's pretty clear that the author is hinting at some kind of theme or main point. The mantra in Slaughterhouse-Five is "so it goes," and you can find that quote on just about any page in the book.
The quote is found after every time something unfortunate happens, usually a death. One may think that it is really ironic, and I guess in a way it is, but the message behind it is completely serious.
Throughout the book, I've been picking up a mood of resignation and acceptance of the inevitable. I think that that may be a theme. Billy is so accepting of all the crap that's happened to him. I mean if I were abducted by aliens and kept jumping around in time, I would probably have questions, if not some concerns.
But anyway, the mantra represents this theme because it's simple, straightforward nature mirrors that of the perspective that "death is something I and everybody else cannot control; that is how the world works and the sooner we can deal with that, the sooner we can live the life we possess at the moment." It's a little harsh, but given the conditions Billy is under where he never knows who he will be with next or even what year it will be, it makes sense in context.
Lost Innocence (Situational Irony) - Novel Blog 2 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
"But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 53
So throughout the book, the idea of innocence is prevalent, especially regarding war. Even in the quote above, Billy longs to find innocence in the midst of battle. Earlier in the book, Billy visits his friend whose wife points out some situational irony. She says that when the men go to war, they are only babies themselves; this provokes Billy to name his book The Children's Crusade. I think the irony here is that war is supposed to be a strictly adult topic - we rate our war movies R for violence, we can't join the military until we are legal adults, and we try to instill pacifist (to an extent) ideals in our children. But what I really think is the difference between "child" and "adult" is maturity. It can take a lot to rid people of their naivety, and war is one of those. While the men didn't go in as children, they went in with innocence. When they came out, that was shattered. And even adults preserve innocence well into the latter years of their lives. It reminds me of that poem we read last semester about the people not wanting the details of war - they know that no one should experience that and they don't want to hear about it. War is such a touchy subject because it has the power to turn a child into an adult, no matter his/her age.
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 53
So throughout the book, the idea of innocence is prevalent, especially regarding war. Even in the quote above, Billy longs to find innocence in the midst of battle. Earlier in the book, Billy visits his friend whose wife points out some situational irony. She says that when the men go to war, they are only babies themselves; this provokes Billy to name his book The Children's Crusade. I think the irony here is that war is supposed to be a strictly adult topic - we rate our war movies R for violence, we can't join the military until we are legal adults, and we try to instill pacifist (to an extent) ideals in our children. But what I really think is the difference between "child" and "adult" is maturity. It can take a lot to rid people of their naivety, and war is one of those. While the men didn't go in as children, they went in with innocence. When they came out, that was shattered. And even adults preserve innocence well into the latter years of their lives. It reminds me of that poem we read last semester about the people not wanting the details of war - they know that no one should experience that and they don't want to hear about it. War is such a touchy subject because it has the power to turn a child into an adult, no matter his/her age.
Parallels - Novel Blog 1 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
"Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath - mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up."
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 73
Okay, so this book is a little difficult (I have a hard enough time when it's in chronological order), but here's a stab at some analysis.
There are so many different recurring events in the novel, but I'm pretty sure there's a particularly significant parallel here. At the beginning, Billy first was confronted by Barbara about his article in the paper, and she was really upset because, well, naturally people get upset when they think their parents are crazy. Billy was talking about all the time travel he had done and the Tralmafadorians. Billy had also been in the war and is clearly suffering (at least during some parts of the novel) from PTSD (that's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, people). I think there is a link between the war and the time travel (shocker, right?). Barbara is so upset by this time travel thing, but Billy just accepts it completely like the Tralmafadorians do. There's a quote in the book and I'm not sure what page it is, but it talks about freewill and how the aliens had never heard of it until they met humans. Billy is not only subject totally to the time travel, but also to his PTSD and war experiences. The reason Billy is so open to the abduction and being "unstuck from time" is because he has already used to dealing with unpleasant things that he feels he cannot change; he succumbs to the idea rather than rebelling against it. I'm not really sure if any of this is important, but that was a parallel I found in the book!
~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 73
Okay, so this book is a little difficult (I have a hard enough time when it's in chronological order), but here's a stab at some analysis.
There are so many different recurring events in the novel, but I'm pretty sure there's a particularly significant parallel here. At the beginning, Billy first was confronted by Barbara about his article in the paper, and she was really upset because, well, naturally people get upset when they think their parents are crazy. Billy was talking about all the time travel he had done and the Tralmafadorians. Billy had also been in the war and is clearly suffering (at least during some parts of the novel) from PTSD (that's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, people). I think there is a link between the war and the time travel (shocker, right?). Barbara is so upset by this time travel thing, but Billy just accepts it completely like the Tralmafadorians do. There's a quote in the book and I'm not sure what page it is, but it talks about freewill and how the aliens had never heard of it until they met humans. Billy is not only subject totally to the time travel, but also to his PTSD and war experiences. The reason Billy is so open to the abduction and being "unstuck from time" is because he has already used to dealing with unpleasant things that he feels he cannot change; he succumbs to the idea rather than rebelling against it. I'm not really sure if any of this is important, but that was a parallel I found in the book!
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