Slaughterhouse V chapter 3-4 Blog

This week for chapters 2-4 I had a general observation about Billy and my theory of how Tralfmadore and the Germans capturing him coincide too much for being a coincidence. My first piece of evidence is from page 105 second paragraph in which Billy describes the Germans telling him to get undressed and how he recalls that was the first thing the Tralfmadorians had him do. I found that very interesting especially since the whole aliens theme fits the Germans perfectly. In my group I made a loose connection that the Germans were considered aliens and Tralfmadore was the POW camp. Billy wasn't able to understand the Germans except telepathically. However, I think Billy experienced a mental breakdown somewhere from being captured and sent on the train. He was described as hated for crying out when he slept, and also the weeping spells. I think his mind constructed a more tolerable and friendly reality so he could cope with an impossible situation. And his recollection post crash injury served as the bridge to have that experience resurface, as he slowly pieces back the real story.

-Joshua Nowaczyk

Chapters 2-4 had me more confused than I already was. I think when I keep reading and getting further in the book I will start to figure it makes sense. In our group we did have a good discussion. As josh said, how Tralfamadore is kind of like a POW camp, and how Billy remembered the first thing the Germans asked him to do was take his clothes off like the tralfamadorians did as well. Something else that we also came up with, maybe Billy has multiple personalities. We were talking about PTSD, then the subject was brought up how all of these different stories were him in different personalities. I also just watched the movie "Split" this past week and it makes sense how each personality has different memories, but they all know what happened. One last thing that I would just like to point out that we talked about is the dog in the beginning of chapter 3, and her name was princess. It is very ironic that the dogs name is Princess, yet she was scared of what was going on. She sounded ferocious but she wasn't.

-Mattisyn Woods

For this week my view point was focused on the literary theorist; In which case I was able to look over the passage of the book, chapters 3-4, and the idea of structuralism part II. Yet what I want to focus on in this blog was the idea that the Tralfamadore's used with Billy; the idea that he is stuck in time like being stuck in amber. This relates back to the idea of being stuck in a picture in this case a polaroid. If you don't know what a polaroid is I suggest you go out a buy one and experience the picture taking adventure. But in any case the polaroid picture and the amber metaphor are similar because they are both stuck in time with the idea of not being removed from where they stand. If I am able to foreshadow about this book (besides already "knowing" the ending) what if Billy never really gets removed from the amber? What if Billy just keeps going through this psychotic cycle over and over again? Or is he really just stuck in amber as the Tralfamadore's say he is? Time will tell in a confusing sort of way.

-Jessica Fehrman

I continue to become more and more confused the more I read of this novel. Something that came up this week in our discussion was questioning what the narrator’s reality is. By this I mean whether any of the events happening happened, and if his mind is damaged from the plane crash or if maybe he has a mental illness. These are questions that will continue to be supported or not supported as we read the rest of the novel.

Something we thought of going along with my above point is if the planet Tralfamadore is a metaphor for the POV camp Billy was in, and if the aliens were the Germans since they spoke different languages. This could be Billy’s way of coping with this memory or possibly he is in a state of mind where he views this camp as an isolated planet where nothing makes sense.

At this point I am connecting the story’s structure to the movie Inception because of the different layers of consciousness and when we are in one and we suddenly jump to another much like the character jumps from one story to another without the audience being fully aware why.

-Anna Newman