Changes in Time and Place

Throughout this portion of ¨Slaughter House Five¨, we see how the author uses changes in time and place in reference of Billy Pilgrim for the development of the story. I found amazing how he is suddenly putting and when he bends down, loses consciousness and when he gains it again, he is back in the ship of the Tralfamadorians. The main events are that Billy is at Barbara´s wedding night and can´t sleep so he goes out to the backyard and gets taken away by a flying saucer. When he wakes up again, he is in Germany still in the World War II, where both the hobo and Roland Weary die. Weary´s last will was to get avenged by hurting or killing the one who killed him: Billy Pilgrim. All throughout the chapter the reader gets a glance at three different worlds in which Billy is the protagonist: with his family in the States, with the Tralfamadorians and in the war.

I found very shocking to see how the author uses irony and changes in time and place to hook the reader. For example, when he states: ¨Their penises were shriveled and their balls were retracted. Reproduction was not the main business of the evening.¨ Here the irony is used when he says that reproduction is not what is happening there, instead they were ordered to take their clothes off so they could have new ones from the Germans. The black humor feeling that the book gives is incomparable, well with such a harsh subject, Kurt seems to make the dark side of it funny. Billy is at a critical point, well Lazzaro and the rest in the boxcar wants to avenge Weary and therefore kill Billy. What would you do if you were in that situation? (I personally would be really scared haha) Good luck Billy....