Slaughterhouse Five: Chapter Two Questions
Please answer these questions about Slaughterhouse-Five
1.What does the author mean when he says that Billy “has come unstuck in time”?
2.What are the major events of Billy’s life depicted in this chapter?
3.What is Tralfamadore? What happens to Billy there?
4.How does Billy describe the Tralfamadorians?
5.What ability do the Tralfamadorians have that Earthlings do not?
6.What is the origin of the phrase, “so it goes”?
7.Describe Billy’s war experience up to his capture?
8.How is he captured? With whom?
9.When and how did Billy first come unstuck in time? Describe the experience.
10.Why does Weary try to beat Billy?
1. When the author says that Billy "has come unstuck in time," he means that Billy is experiencing his life out of chronological order and is jumping back and forth between different moments in time.
2. The major events of Billy's life depicted in this chapter include his time as a prisoner of war in World War II, his experiences in Dresden, his marriage, and his interactions with the Tralfamadorians.
3. Tralfamadore is a planet inhabited by the Tralfamadorians, an alien race that abducts Billy and takes him to their planet. While on Tralfamadore, Billy is put in a zoo and studied by the aliens.
4. Billy describes the Tralfamadorians as small, green, and shaped like plumber's friends. They have one eye on a tentacle and communicate through telepathy.
5. The Tralfamadorians have the ability to see in four dimensions, allowing them to see all moments in time simultaneously. This means they can see past, present, and future all at once.
6. The phrase "so it goes" is used by the author as a refrain throughout the book whenever someone dies. It is meant to convey the inevitability and indifference of death.
7. Billy's war experience up to his capture includes fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, being separated from his unit, and wandering through the woods in a daze.
8. He is captured by the Germans along with two other soldiers, Roland Weary and Paul Lazzaro.
9. Billy first comes unstuck in time when he is at his daughter's wedding anniversary party and is suddenly transported back to his time as a prisoner of war in Dresden.
10. Weary tries to beat Billy because he blames him for getting separated from their unit and believes that Billy is a coward.