Slaughterhouse-Five
Friday, August 3, 2012
Entry 20, Chapter 10 - So It Goes...
Vonnegut, mixed with his character of Billy Pilgrim reveal through the story extreme expression in his stories, but like I said, at the end, he seems to lose his expression. His trademark phrase "so it goes" really tells a reader that he himself is unaware if the rumor he had heard was even true, but towards the end, this phrase is used more and more often, creating an annoying repetition and montone, as if he was now viewing the rumors as completely untrue. Comapred to his past tone, he made me think that the statemnets were true, but in the last chapter, he showed me that he honestly thought taht the rumors were false.
Entry 19, Chapter 10 - Stream of Consciousness
In the ending chapter of the story, Vonnegut reveals his stream of consciousness which is his bluntness when it comes to his emotional jouney throughout the war. He dimly describes the corpse mines like they are nothing as," Billy and the Maori dug into the inert...they made a hole in the membrane. There was darkness and space under there." Vonnegut goes on through the chapter as if nothing was of sort or important, like the war was simply a blur to him, but in the back of his mind, and through his detailed descriptions of the past scenes, Vonnegut knows that what he had seen in Dresden was everlasting. His stream of consciousness was so monotone and completely uninterested as compared to his passed thoughts.
Entry 18, Chapter 9 - Recall the Good, Forget the Bad
Entry 17, Chapter 9 - Theme
A theme, reinforced by the Tralfamadorians, is that we need to always remember the good moments and forget the bad memories. The natives of Tralfamadore were," to advise Billy to concentrate on the happy moments of his life, and to ignore the unhappy ones." Themes in stories are there to advise the readers to learn something about life and possibly enforce in their own lives. This theme about forgetting the terrible memories, I think, should be adopted by everyone.
Entry 16, Chapter 8 - Time Travel
Entry 15, Chapter 8 - Hubris
Hubris is simply a tragic flaw that leads to a character's downfall. Billy begins his downfall with his status in society towards the end of his life because of his gullibility. Billy begins to believe everything he is seeing and reading in Kilgore Trout's science fiction books that lead to the crazy thoughts of Billy's that Tralfamodorians exist and abducted him. Later on, as Billy is giving a speech to people about the truths behind his Tralfamodorian friends, Lazarro comes and finds Billy years later and fulfills his threat of taking Billy's life. In the end, Billy becomes distanced from his family, optometry patients, and his life because of his belief that he had become unstuck in time. His daughter, his own flesh and blood blames," That Kilgore Trout," because he," is and was a science fiction writer...that anyone can become a friend of."
Entry 14, Chapter 7 - All Knowing?
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