Slaughter-house Five - Reading Blog pgs 23- 51

After the introduction done by the author (not Vonnegut but the narrator), his book begins. It starts with a rather curious sentence, "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."(pg. 23) My first impression was , "What the heck does that mean?" As I read on it basically meant traveling through time, past, present and future. However, there is a slight catch, Billy apparently cannot control his travels. This makes his traveling even more astonishing.

As the text flows, we learn about Billy's life. He was an optometrist and served in WWII and after the war he was very succesfull. Later on he suffered severe head trauma and after that he claimed he was abducted by aliens. At this point I was asking myself where was this story going to. Aliens? War? Bombings? Very strange combination of subjects in my opinion.

The story then tells us of Billy's first "unsticking" in time. He was in the last months of the war and he had been separated from his group during the Battle of the Bulge. He had met up with three other soldiers and they were making their way back to American lines. At this point Billy is described, "He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo."(pg.33) My view of Billy was now of pity. He reminded me of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, a character that can only make the reader feel pity and contempt, not love, not hate.

As I read more I began to wonder why Billy had such little desire to live? In the text I couldn't find any answer to this an I really want to know. Is this related with his time travelling?

Then came Billy's first time travel. He went into 1965 and led his usual life as if he had lived all that time. This makes me wonder how this time travel works...Does he see his life in third person or does he become part of the scene? Or is it similar to a memory? If he does live his future, why doen't he act surprised as he jumps through time? That makes me think it is really like a memory. When Billy returns to the war he continues his journey until the group reaches a river, there two of the group leave Billy and Ronald Weary, a young soldier. Infuriated by the ditch, Ronald begins beating up Billy, who doesn't seem to care much. He doesn't express much pain only "convulsive sounds that sounded like laughter."(pg. 51) As ronald was about to break Biilly's back, five German soldiers reached the scene. Billy was now a POW.

ROnald character is an interesting one. He is the typical daydreamer who thinks he will make a huge difference and will become famous almost instantly. As I read about his daydreams I was remembered of myself. I daydream a lot, making up fantastic scenarios of everyday scenes, much like Ronald's "Three Musketeers" dream. Billy also reminded me of WWII movies, tv shows and videogames where there is alway the hotshot new kid who is either killed, gets his buddies killed or saves the day. I wonder how improsonment will make Ronald change. Will he become a leader? Perhaps attempt escapes? Will he be humbled? I hope those questions are asnwered soon.