"Poo-tee-weet?"

The most interesting part of Slaughter House-Five was all the questions we were always facing. Thats why I was looking forward to the end to get answers to this questions. When I got to the end of this book I didn't felt like I actually finished it. Why? I felt like it would had a sequel in which I would get the answers, which obviously is no the case with Slaughter House-Five. Even though some questions were answered, most of the were not. In the book we did got the answer to is Billy the alter ego of Vonnegut? At the end of the book we found out that they were separate persons in the story.

Other than that I also think sometimes having unanswered questions is what made the book unique. Most of the books, you know what the stories are behind all the crazy things that happened. But maybe thats not such a good thing. That just might be the purpose of Vonnegut, for us to have questions. "Poo-tee-weet?" This is the last sentence of the book, this is what makes me think that Vonnegut's purpose is exactly that, for us to have questions. If not, why would he end his novel with the readers having more doubts?

"Time Window"

In Chapter 8 one of the most interesting character reappeared, Kilgore Trout. Billy reminded how he met Trout in his home town, Illium. Trout was a newspaper delivery man, and when Billy knew who he was as an unknown author he was surprised. Billy invited him to his wedding anniversary. Trout was able to notice something about Billy that not most people were able to do. He realized that Billy was looking through a "time window". Billy obviously trues to hide his history trauma. Not even the closest people to Billy weren't able to realize what is going on. But Trout almost a complete stranger to Billy was able to see this.

How Trout reacted towards Billy's really reminded me of the movie The Soloist. This movie is based on a life a celloist. His name was Nathaniel Ayers and he was one part of the school music, Julliard. He is a homeless schizophrenic. But when a simple reporter from the Los Angeles was able to recognize his talent and portray it to the world. This reminds me of Trout's relationship with Billy. Why? It reminded me of this relationship, because like Lopez, the reporter, Trout was able to recognize something that nobody had ever noticed even if it was right there.

Destiny

In the book as time goes, so does how Billy manages time. He has learned that he can't define his destiny, because what is meant to be is meant to be. In a way he has learned the lesson that everything happens for a reason. In Chapter 2 we are awared that Billy suffers a plane crash but we don't really hear the story behind it. When you get to Chapter 7 Kurt Vonnegut tells the story behind the crash.

Billy knows that his plane is going to crash, but he beliefs that is the place were he belongs and that for some reason he has to suffer the tragedy of a plane crash. In this plane were 29 optometrists, counting Billy. They were going to Montreal, Valencia. During the flight he time travels to 1944, but then the plane crashes. Billy had the luck that he survived. They crashed in a mountain in Vermont and a ski instructor found him a took him to the hospital. 


Billy knew this was his destiny all along. I can help to wonder, if he knew that the plane was going to crash, did he also knew he was going to survive? And if the destiny was the contrary and he were going to die, would he even step near that plane?

Time Machines?

In Cristina Escallon's blog entry Perspectives... I saw questions that I never really though about time traveling. Cristina said things like: How would it affect your present. Always when I think myself time traveling, its just and adventure. When I imagine time travel, I just think of a machine that can take me anywhere I want. Cristina's blog made me realize that time traveling other than being an adventure it affects your present and it might affect your future.

This book does not portray time traveling as most people portrays it. When reading Slaughter House-Five I started considering that time travel was not something good, like a privilege, but like bagage that Billy got stucked with. How Cristina says, why would you change your past if you are satisfied with your present? I think that if you get the option to change things that happened in the past you don't realize that by changing them you are also changing al your present. I think that that's why it is a bagage to be able to time travel.

Alter Ego

Reading the book two characters really jumped at me: Kilgore Trout, and Eliot Rosewater. Rosewater was veteran of war, just like Billy. He is also in the mental ward for veterans and suffer of the same thing, aftereffects of war. They are both looking for an escape of this problem. The main thing that Rosewater did was introduce Trout to Billy. In the other hand we have Trout, he is a science-fiction author. 

Trout other than being a random science-fiction author, he is Billy's favorite author. I kept reading about Kilgore Trout in Slaughter House-Five. The way thatVonnegut described him gave me the impression that Trout was Vonnegut's alter ego. I asked myself a question, as some of the persons that read the book might have doubt the same thing. Why Vonnegut and NOT Billy's alter ego?

In my past blog, Is that Vonnegut?, I stated my opinion by saying that Vonnegut is trying to express himself by Billy. Reading Chapter Five my opinion in way changed. 

It changed because right now I believe that Vonnegut is trying to express himself by Trout. Why? Even though Vonnegut and Billy have similarities, Trout and Vonnegut have more specific ones. For example: the three of them lived in Illium, but Billy was born there, instead Trout and Vonnegut lived there for a period of time. Now I believe that Billy is not Vonnegut outer ego, but Trout is.

Time, Time, Time..

 I keep reading Slaughter House-Five, and every time the Trafalmadorian believes come up, they always stun me. In the end of Chapter 4 there’s a phrase that really caught my eye. "All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations." 

In this quote really we can see the main thing Trafalmadorians do, see in all directions and all periods of time. The time in Tralfamadore is much different than earth. In Trafalmadore it might look like a long period of time, while it might be a small time period in Earth. Even though this explanation of time is mentions in Chapter 2, it is manifested through the whole book. The way that Vonnegut was trying to express his feeling of life and war in the book is through time.

All the ideas of the Trafalmadorians really resembles to the novel also movie, The Time Travelers Wife. In this novel we are also confronted with a controversy of time. The main character is a man that has a genetic disorder, this makes him time travel unpredictably. In these journeys he has he dangerous experiences. This reminds me of Slaughter House-Five because of the dilemma with time.