Plot Overview

Slaughterhouse- five by Kurt Vonnegut is about a man named Billy Pilgrim and his reflection of events in his life that relate to the Dresden bombing during WWII. Billy Pilgrim begins the novel as a relatively weak character, during his childhood he is constantly pushed around by his father, just as when he is put in the army he is pushed around by other army men as a joke. Vonnegut himself is a character, narrating Billy's life. Vonnegut tells of Billy's experience of being a POW, his family life, and his kidnapping to Tralfamadore. In the very first chapter of the book, Vonnegut expresses the difficulty he had when he tried to write a book about his Dresden POW experience. The circular plot of the story portrays to the reader the difficulty that Vonnegut expierences to relive the terrifying experience of War; as well as communicating the theme of Slaughterhouse- Five that such memories cannot be erased by time nor be romanticized.