Slaughterhouse-Five Questions and Answers
What are examples of irony, playfulness, and black humor in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five? Why did he choose to use these elements?
Why does the author continually use "so it goes" in Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, why are the last words of the novel “Poo-tee-weet”? What statement is Vonnegut making by closing his text this way?
What is the purpose of the backwards movie episode in chapter four of Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, what is Kurt Vonnegut's tone in the conversation between the narrator and his editor Nancy about the war veteran killed in the elevator?
What is the significance of the "hobo" saying, "This ain't so bad"?
Why does Kurt Vonnegut use metafiction in Slaughterhouse-Five? What are the good examples of metafiction in the novel?
"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops." What does Vonnegut mean in this quote from Slaughterhouse-Five?
What is the moral or message of Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, what is the significance of the name "Billy Pilgrim" and why does Vonnegut put him in Ilium?
What happens when Billy sees the movie going backwards in Slaughterhouse-Five?
The subtitle of Slaughterhouse-Five is "The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death." Do you think this is an appropriate subtitle for Vonnegut’s novel? Why or why not?
Is Slaughterhouse-Five a pastiche? What are the examples of temporal distortion, meta-fiction, and paranoia?
What is the significance of the word "Listen" in Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, discuss the lifestyle of the English prisoners of war.
In Slaughterhouse-Five, why is "spooning" syrup a crime?
Whats the purpose of the "perfect Adam and Eve" reference?
”And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep” (Ch.1) What kind of understanding does this show about time in Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Chapter 5 of Slaughterhouse-Five, what two natural wonders does this chapter make reference to and how?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, what made Kurt Vonnegut choose a "Reagan for President" sticker years before he was elected?
What does the subtitle "the children's crusade" mean in Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, why is Cinderella referred to as "the most popular story ever told"?
In Chapter 5 of Slaughterhouse-Five, how does Billy's characterization as "the filthy flamingo" deepen in this chapter?
In chapter 4 of "Slaughterhouse-Five", what is the significance of Billy being able to see the war movie in reverse?
What does Kurt Vonnegut achieve by placing himself as a character in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five?
What is the exposition of Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Chapter 4 of Slaughterhouse-Five, why do the other POWs want to avoid Billy sleeping next to them?
What are the similarities and differences between Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried?
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, who are the Tralfamadorians? What do they teach Pilgrim? How does Pilgrim feel about the time he spends with them? How does his life with them differ from his “real” life?
In chapter 5 of Slaughterhouse-Five, there is a passage that begins "Under morphine, Billy had a dream of giraffes." How does this passage connect to the themes of the book?
Were the Tralfamadorians a product of imagination or truly real in Slaughterhouse-Five?
What is the significance of Billy Pilgrim's powerful reaction in the following passage from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five? “Billy had powerful psychosomatic responses to the changing chords. His mouth filled with the taste of lemonade, and his face became grotesque, as though he really were being stretched on the torture engine called the rack.” Why does he have this powerful reaction to the song? How does his reaction pave the way for the memory of Dresden described shortly thereafter?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, what are some images of machinery and how are they similar or different compared to the character of Billy Pilgrim?
Why do the British POWs send Billy to the hospital shed?
What is Slaughterhouse-Five about?
Does this book have a happy ending? Why or why not? Explain.
In chapter 5 of Slaughterhouse-Five, who is Edgar Derby?
How is appearance vs reality shown through Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five?
In Chapter 5 of Slaughterhouse-Five, how are the Germans reflective of the Tralfmadoreans?
Why does Billy time travel and what is its significance in Slaughterhouse-Five?
In the first chapter of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, one character tells the narrator that when he hears someone is writing an anti-war book, he asks, “[W]hy don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?” (3). Clearly, the narrator is warning that it may be impossible to write anything against war. After having finished the novel, is it an anti-war book? Why or why not? Support your answer with solid answers from the text.
Why does Kurt Vonnegut choose to make a man like Pilgrim be the protagonist of Slaughterhouse-Five?
Whats the purpose of the bullet-proof Bible reference in the novel, Slaughterhouse-Five?
What does Billy dream of when he is on morphine?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut insists that "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." How does he come to this conclusion? How does his use of repeated phrases help to make his argument?
In the book Slaughterhouse-Five, how do Billy Pilgrim's parents weaken him?
Can Vonnegut and Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Slaughterhouse-Five, be regarded as mirror opposites? Use quotations from the text to justify your answer.
What celestial body does Vonnegut compare Dresden to after it's been destroyed?
In what ways is Slaughterhouse-Five an anti-war narrative?
Describe the spaceship.
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