Chapter 10 - Poo-tee-weet

"Birds were talking.

One said to Billy Pilgrim, 'Poo-tee-weet.'"

Vonnegut ends the novel with a rhetorical question to reiterate his words from the first chapter "there's nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.  Vonnegut is suggesting that anyone's talk about the war makes about as much sense as bird talk.  This meaningless bird talk is left to fill the silence of what's been left behind by war.  Also at the end of the novel, Vonnegut casually throws in Edgar Derby's death after getting caught stealing a teapot.  He had mentioned earlier that he wanted to make this the climax of the novel.  He did not do this to show that there is no climax in war.  War is war and there is nothing intelligent to say about it.

Chapter 10 - More Dignity

The the last chapter of the novel, Vonnegut's theme of dignity again arises.  He explains that thousands of people are born each day and "supposes all want dignity."  Just as many people die each day which puts dignity at a high price.  Billy Pilgrim must go to a completely different planet to achieve the dignity he longs for because there may not be enough to go around on Earth.  He had little dignity in his early years and it was completely stripped of him when he became a prisoner of war.  Vonnegut wonders if there will ever be enough dignity to go around.  His point in making dignity an important point in the novel is to get people to understand that we are all born will dignity but must learn to harness it so we can feel it for ourselves. 

Chapter 9 - The End of the War

As the novel nears its end, Billy Pilgrim is struck with conflicting emotions.  The day after the German's surrender, he is lying happily in a tomb on wheels.  The coffin shaped wagon stands a symbol for both the dead and the suffering of those who survived.  It also stands for the loss of innocence suffered by the "babies" in this Children's Crusade.  Billy now begins to suffer the loss and despair caused by the Americans' victory.  This should be the happiest moment of his life, yet he weeps for this loss of innocence.  After being scolded by the German couple for the condition of the horses, Billy bursts into tears.  "He hadn't cried about anything else in the war."  He is crying as he realizes the defeat that victory brings.  It causes him despair for the loss of lives, innocence, and the burden of his memories he will carry with him throughout his life.

Chapter 9 - Epigraph

The cattle are lowing,

The Baby awakes.

But the little Lord Jesus

 No crying he makes.

Vonnegut explains that the epigraph for this book is the quatrain from this famous Christmas Carol.  "Billy cried very little, though he often saw things worth crying about, and in that respect, at least, he resembled the Christ of the carol."  Vonnegut has tried to make the reader view Billy with sympathy in an attempt to make him resemble Christ.  Billy is also compared to Christ in the way that he has tried to spread his message about time although his journey had left him ridiculed.  Through his ridicule and suffering, it seems that Billy is made stronger.  In the end, he agrees that the destruction of Dresden was for the best.  This reminded me of how Christ had to die on the cross in order for salvation to be possible.

 

Chapter 8 - The Barbershop Quartet

Billy first mentions the barbershop quartet as among the dead during the plane crash.  They come up again in chapter eight and perform at Billy and Valencia's eighteenth wedding anniversary.  The song they performed began to upset Billy.  The song upset him so much that the others present thought he might be having a heart attack due to his facial expressions and actions.  When asked by Kilgore Trout if he had seen the past or future, he simply responded "no."  I find this interesting after reading it the second time because the root cause did seem to be a result of what he had experienced in the past.  Therefore, he must have been upset from the incident being stored in his subconscious since he did not fully understand the root cause himself.  When Billy traveled in time later in the chapter, he was back in Dresden , post bombing.  Four guards were standing together "experimenting with one expression and then another."  This statement is reminiscent of the barbershop quartet when described by Vonnegut as making the quartet slow, "agonized experiments with chords."  Billy thought the guards looked like a barbershop quartet and imagined them singing the same words that had made him so upset the night of his anniversary.  The root cause of Billy's distress during the party is now revealed - the barbershop quartet brought back the painful memories of being in Dresden when it was bombed.

Chapter 8 - Dynamic Character

Vonnegut mentioned Edgar Derby multiple times during the novel.  It was implied that he would become more important later in the novel since the matter of his death was also constantly mentioned.  The reader is left to ponder his later actions that lead to his eventual death.  Edgar Derby can be classified as a dynamic character because he had undergone important changes that affected the result of the story's action.  "Poor old Derby, the doomed high school teacher, lumbered to his feet for what was probably the finest moment in his life."  He was standing up to speak out against Campbell, an American who had become a Nazi, trying to recruit soldiers for his military unit called "The Free American Corps."  He told Campbell that he was "lower than a snake or a rat - or even a blood-filled tick."  Vonnegut says there are almost no characters in his story because "most people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces."  Derby, however, was a character because he took on these enormous forces, standing up for his morals, values, and the United States.  Vonnegut adds this dynamic character to give credit to the true heroes in war.  He has been sure to make his anti-war stance clear throughout the novel, but also wants to point out the men who deserve to be praised because of their heroic actions. 

Chapter 7 - The Life Sustaining Syrup

"The syrup enriched with vitamins and minerals" represents the ongoing irony in this novel.  The syrup is meant to give strength to pregnant women and to nurture their unborn child.  The syrup serves as a positive symbol chaos and massacre of war.  It is bringing forth life in a place that will soon be destroyed.  When Edgar Derby tasted the syrup, I began to make the connection of his part in the story.  Vonnegut constantly reminds the reader of Derby's unfortunate fate to come, consistently referring to him as "poor old Edgar Derby."  Derby is old and wise and serves as a positive influence in the midst of war.  The irony, made known to the reader, is that Derby's death is near.  The is similar to the life sustaining syrup in the way that it is a positive symbol in the war, but the place in which it resides will soon be destroyed. 

Chapter 7 - Direct Characterization

Billy Pilgrim and Edgar Derby were being guarded by a sixteen-year-old German named Werner Gluck.  Vonnegut takes time to describe the young boy although he is only mentioned for a  short time.  He is characterized as "tall and weak like Billy, and might have been a younger brother of his."  Vonnegut then goes on to explain that "They were, in fact, distant cousins, something they never found out."  This young boy was added in the novel to serve as yet another reminder of the horrors of war.  Vonnegut reminds the reader that relatives may be on different sides, fighting and killing each other all for the sake of their country.  War brings about the worst in people, and, through it, the concept of family may be lost.

Chapter 6 - Cinderella

"Billy Pilgrim was Cinderella, and Cinderella was Billy Pilgrim.

While in the banquet hall as a POW, Billy Pilgrim watches the play, put on by the Englishmen, "Cinderella, the most popular story ever told."  Vonnegut uses the allusion of Cinderella to parallel the character of Billy Pilgrim.  Needing a good pair of boots, Billy takes the ones used in Cinderella, and they fit perfectly.  The reader is left to make the connection from Cinderella when she tried on the glass slipper and it too fit.  This comparison is used for foreshadowing Billy's later life.  Cinderella had a sad life, always conforming to the demands of her stepmother.  She was later transformed into a beautiful, respected person, with the help of her fairy god mother, and her life had a happy ending.  Billy had always been disrespected, and was especially ridiculed in war.  He will later be transformed into a powerful, respected doctor with the help of the tralfamidorians.  It seems to be implied with the comparison of Cinderella that his story will also have a happy ending.

Chapter 6 - Dramatic Irony

    In chapter six of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy and the rest of the American POWs are being sent to Dresden.  Vonnegut presents a situation of dramatic irony as the Englishman romanticizes about the place the Americans are being sent.  He explains his envy for the Americans because they won't be "cooped up like us" since "Dresden is a beautiful city."  The Englishman also tells the Americans that they "needn't worry about bombs," for "Dresden is an open city."  The irony is, however, that the reader knows that Dresden will be bombed since Vonnegut has made a point to notify the reader that the Bombing of  Dresden will be the center of his novel.  Although Dresden may have once been a beautiful city, as the Englishman commented, it will soon just be a pile of rubble.  Vonnegut used this dramatic irony to explain to the reader that the POWs were clueless of what was to come.  The danger Billy and the other characters were about to face was not known to them at the time making it even harder to face.