Study Questions
1. What does Billy dream of when he is on morphine?

2. How does the scene with the punched prisoner parallel an experience Billy has with the Tralfamadorians?

3. What does Eliot Rosewater have to say about The Brothers Kamazarov?

4. While visiting Billy what does Valencia’s chosen topic of conversation say about her personality?

5. What is the problem with the Bible as it stands, according to The Gospel from Outer Space?

6. At what two points does Vonnegut insert himself into the narrative of this chapter?

7. How does the universe end, according to the Tralfamadorians?

8. How is Montana Wildhack’s body described?

9. Why was Paul Lazzaro’s arm broken?

10. Why does Billy think he can make his young patient happy?

Answers
1. Billy dreams he is a giraffe.

2. Both prisoners ask, “Why me?” to which the German responds, “Why anybody?” and the Tralfamadorian, “Why anything?”

3. It used to contain everything there was to know about life, but it just wasn’t enough anymore.

4. Valencia’s discussion of silver patterns makes her appear to be very shallow.

5. The Bible teaches that it is okay to lynch people who have no connections, according to the alien narrator of Trout’s book.

6. Vonnegut says that Billy’s epitaph would be good “for me, too.” In concluding the passage about the sick American soldiers, Vonnegut says of one, “That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.”

7. An experimental Tralfamadorian jet fuel blows up the universe.

8. She is described as having baroque detailing, like the buildings of Dresden before they were bombed.

9. He was trying to steal cigarettes from one of the Englishmen.

10. If the little boy can grasp Billy’s philosophy of death, he’ll understand that he can see his father any time he wants to.