Slaughterhouse-Five

The German soldiers are ordered to round up any wandering or wounded Americans. They are a mix of older men and teenagers like Billy and Weary. They have a dog named Princess. Billy notices that the exhausted, cynical corporal in charge of the Germans has polished boots. Billy admires the boots. He catches the eye of the youngest German, a 15-year-old “blond angel” (31). Gunshots in the distance reveal that the two American soldiers who ditched Billy and Weary have been shot. The Germans take Weary’s expensive weapons and equipment. The two sides do not speak each other’s language.

Billy and Weary are taken to a stone cottage where 20 other Americans are detained. No one talks. Billy sleeps and travels through time again. He is in 1967 in his optometrist’s office where he worries about his mental health. Occasionally, he falls asleep at work and he forgets his own age. As he sits in his office, Billy hears a siren. He closes his eyes and awakes again in the stone cottage. A German tells him to get up and move. The Germans take photographs of the captured Americans to use in propaganda materials.

As Billy is made to pose for photographs, his mind slips out of time again. He is in 1967 and driving to a Lions Club meeting. He drives through a predominantly African American neighborhood which has burned down. Billy blames the African American inhabitants. The sight of the destroyed buildings reminds him of Dresden. At the Lions Club, he listens to a major from the Marines deliver a lecture on the importance of the Vietnam War. The man is “bombing North Vietnam back into the Stone Age” (34) if necessary. Billy’s son fights in Vietnam as part of the Green Berets. He assures the major that he is proud of his son. Every so often, Billy weeps for no apparent reason. His doctor advises him to take more naps.

Meanwhile, Billy’s business is successful, and he is rich beyond his wildest expectations. He owns a vibrating bed named “Magic Fingers” (35). As he tries to nap, all he can do is cry. The bed vibrates as he weeps. A man selling magazine subscriptions rings the doorbell, but Billy refuses to open the door. He believes the subscriptions are a scam. When Billy lays back down on the bed, he wakes up again in 1944 in Luxembourg.

The American prisoners are forcibly marched from Luxembourg into Germany through the bitter winter conditions. Billy is strangely excited by the difficult march, and he smiles as the number of Americans grows. The prisoners are loaded onto boxcars and divided according to their rank. The narrator is at the station, as is O’Hare, but they do not meet Billy. Billy stands in the corner of the cramped boxcar next to a ventilator. He has a view of the outside. The prisoners are made to wait in the crammed boxcar for two days. Water and food are passed through the ventilator while the men must relieve themselves in their helmets. The full helmets are then passed to men like Billy, who dump the contents outside. The train finally begins to move on Christmas Eve. As the train travels through the night, Billy becomes unstuck and finds himself on the night that he is abducted by the Tralfamadorians.