Alliance Cindy & Bill Simon Technology Academy High School



Slaughterhouse V, Or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance With DeathReading GuideWe will begin reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse V, Or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death. In doing so, there are several tasks that you will be responsible to complete during your reading. Be certain to follow the directions of each section and complete them with analytical insight. Also, pay attention to the due dates for each section.DATES ASSIGNEDREADINGTASKSDUE DATESWeek 18/24 – 8/28Title Page / Chapter 1 (1 – 23)Guided Reading Questions for Title Page and Chapter 18/31Week 28/31 – 9/4Chapters 2 – 4 (24 – 86)Guided Reading Questions for Chapters 2 –59/7Week 39/7 – 9/11Chapters 5 – 6 (87 – 153)Guided Reading Questions for Chapters 5 – 69/14Week 49/14 – 9/18Chapters 7 – 10 (154 – 215)Guided Reading Questions for Chapters 7 – 109/21Week 59/21 – 9/25– – –Overarching Questions9/25Guided Reading QuestionsDirections: As you read the text, answer the following guided reading questions in complete sentences.Title PageHow does the title page of Slaughterhouse-Five differ from that of a conventional book?What is suggested by the subtitle of the book: The Children’s Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death?Chapter 1From what point of view is Chapter One told, and what effect does this literary technique have on the unfolding of the story?In the first few pages of the book Vonnegut tells us off-handedly about a German cab driver’s mother who “was incinerated in the Dresden firestorm. So it goes.” Referring to the horrible firebombing a few paragraphs later, Vonnegut says he expected a book about his experiences “would be a masterpiece, or at least make me a lot of money, since the subject was so big.” And later a movie director jokes with Vonnegut that such an anti-war book would have as much appeal as an “anti-glacier” book. What is your reaction to these episodes strung together? What narrative tone is Vonnegut establishing?What are Vonnegut’s initial motivations in writing Slaughterhouse-Five (as he informs us in this chapter) and what happens to change that motivation?The author begins to clarify his own ideas by comparing and linking them to a rather strange assortment of high and low art: a ribald limerick, a nonsense song, the poetry of Roethke, the Bible, and social histories. Why?Chapter 2How does the structure of the second chapter resemble that of the first?What is implied by the opening line in Chapter Two: “Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time?”Why would Vonnegut choose the name Billy Pilgrim for his protagonist?As they read deeper into Slaughterhouse-Five, readers will begin to notice the repetition of the phrase “so it goes” as a sort of refrain when a death is mentioned. What is the effect of this device? What is the author’s intention?Slaughterhouse-Five features constant internal associations. That is, the reader notices subtle connections among characters, events, episodes, etc. For instance, something happens to one character that is eerily similar to that which happened to another. Find at least one of these associations. Can you infer the author’s intention in his use of this literary technique?How is Vonnegut’s description of the Tralfamadorians satiric?Chapter 3Vonnegut uses the scene of Billy’s capture by German soldiers to develop another aspect of the protagonist’s character—and another recurrent theme in Slaughterhouse-Five. What is this aspect, this theme? Where is the theme restated later in the chapter?We have said before that Slaughterhouse-Five is filled with different forms of irony, often sarcastic. Irony is a subtly humorous inconsistency. Give at least one example of verbal irony in the third chapter. Give an example of structural irony from the book at large.The third chapter is filled with clashing perceptions. Explain. What is Vonnegut implying?Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five during the height of the Vietnam War. Is there a thematic link between that conflict and World War II? Where is that apparent in this chapter?Chapter 4Where do we see people “spooning” in Chapters Three and Four? Why does Vonnegut create this association?Name at least one other detail that connects the end of Chapter Three and the boxcar with Chapter Four and Ilium? What is the thematic purpose of this association?What are some images of innocence, or Eden, featured in this chapter?Billy, while “slightly unstuck in time,” watches a television movie about a World War II bombing raid, only he views the movie in reverse. Explain the meaning of this passage in the context of your developing understanding of the book.How would you describe the morality of the Tralfamadorians, as they are depicted in Chapter Four?Chapter 5The Tralfamadorians show Billy some of their unusual novels, and explain how they differ from human novels. How are the Tralfamadorian novels like Slaughterhouse-Five?Billy time-travels to his childhood, witnessing a family trip to the Grand Canyon and another to Carlsbad Caverns. These experiences serve as metaphors. Explain.An American prisoner asks his Russian guard, “Why me?” The guard responds, “Vy you? Vy anybody?” Explain the significance of the exchange.Describe three images that make a strong impression on you in this chapter. Why did these images catch your attention?What irony do you see in the situation with the POW Englishmen?List some references to light and darkness in Chapter Five. Explain how these symbols might connect to themes in the book.Chapter 6In Slaughterhouse-Five things are not what they seem. Hence, in the previous chapter, Billy learned from the Tralfamadorians that a man and woman alone don’t conceive a human child, but seven different co-creators are involved. What are some examples from Chapter 6 of this motif?What other characters in the book resemble Paul Lazzaro?What portrait of politics and political leaders does Vonnegut present in this chapter?How would you interpret the exchange between the surgeon and Billy in light of your growing understanding of the anti-war theme in the book?Many critics say Billy Pilgrim could be a literary allusion to The Pilgrim’s Progress, a famous 17th century allegory by John Bunyan. In what way is the novel like an allegory?What is the significance of the novel’s title: Slaughterhouse-Five?Chapter 7How do your sympathies fluctuate as you read this chapter? Trace your feelings as you encounter various characters (even races of people)—Billy, Lionel Merble, Tralfamadorians, Poles, Germans, Edgar Derby, Werner Gluck, et al. Are we to infer anything from this fluctuation?Why does Vonnegut include the brief scene of the refugee girls in the shower?At the beginning of the chapter Vonnegut tells us Lionel Merble “was a machine.” Vonnegut then adds: “Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the Universe is a machine.” Why is Merble a machine? Do you see evidence one way or another in this chapter to suggest Billy is a machine?In an earlier chapter we were told that death, to the Tralfamadorians, is only a sort of hum, a comforting background sound. Vonnegut artfully has inserted in this chapter a variation on that hum. Explain the symbolism employed by Vonnegut.What is symbolized by the syrup in Chapter Seven?Chapter 8Explain the symbolism of the character Howard W. Campbell, Jr.We have seen that periodically Vonnegut interjects himself into the narrative with commentary. One example is especially important. Explain.Explain the character of Kilgore Trout in relation to the themes and other characters of the book.Discuss the effect of the barbershop music on Billy in this chapter.Throughout mythology and literature, caves and other underground vaults have often held the ambiguous symbolic significance of representing wombs and/or tombs. Discuss the underground slaughterhouse “meat locker” and the Americans’ survival of the bombing in light of this symbolism.Discuss the scene at the inn, with the blind innkeeper and his wife, and the treatment of the Americans, in light of developing motifs and themes in the book.Chapter 9In this chapter, Vonnegut recapitulates many themes developed earlier in the book. Cite examples.Vonnegut uses Rumfoord’s research, juxtaposed with Billy’s personal experience, as a literary device to view the Dresden firebombing and the Hiroshima bombing from several moral and political perspectives. Explain.On rare occasions throughout the novel, Billy rises above his “listlessness,” albeit just barely. Cite one such occasion in Chapter Nine.Billy’s “speaking out,” however, also takes a pathetic turn in this chapter. Explain.Chapter 10From what you know about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, is Vonnegut accurate when he writes, “Charles Darwin, who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements”?How does the narrative point of view change in the last chapter? What is the effect of this literary strategy?Why does Vonnegut consider his plane ride back from Dresden “one of the nicest [moments]” of his life? What is the author suggesting by underscoring this moment?How does the information on population growth in O’Hare’s pamphlet connect with the earlier mention of Charles Darwin and evolution?Overarching QuestionsDirections: As you read the text, answer the following questions in complete sentences. You will continuously revisit these questions and add to your answers.In satire, the reader can’t take characters and events at face value, but must reach his or her own conclusions about deeper meanings. Often, the writer intends the reader to judge harshly. The unusual wrinkle in this novel is that Vonnegut himself appears in the book and expresses a similar outlook to that of the characters. Should we take Vonnegut at face value? How should we judge, for instance, his “So it goes,” indifference to death and war?What is your judgment of Billy Pilgrim and what he represents? Does he deserve your sympathy? your blame?What is Vonnegut’s view of religion, science, government, industry and other modern institutions? What is the evidence for your view?How does Slaughterhouse-Five represent a modern or postmodern work of art? What similarities and/or differences does it have with other works of art of the time period?Imagery is perhaps Vonnegut’s most powerful literary tool in Slaughterhouse-Five. Explain the function of images in the pare and contrast images of paradise versus calamity in Slaughterhouse-Five and explain the use of such contrasting pare Tralfamadorians and the Nazis. How are they similar? Where in the novel does the author make such links? Does Billy—the Everyman—share any of the same characteristics as these two groups? What is Vonnegut suggesting with these comparisons?To what degree is Slaughterhouse-Five an anti-war novel, a protest against the Vietnam Conflict, or World War II, etc.?How could the Christian prediction, “The meek will inherit the earth” apply to this story?One critic has said Slaughterhouse-Five represents a synthesis of Christian and Tralfamadorian values. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.Science fiction is a motif in the novel—Kilgore Trout’s books, the world of Tralfamadore, etc. How does Vonnegut use science fiction as a metaphor for man’s need to reinvent his world?Framed on the wall in Billy’s office is a copy of a prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” Vonnegut goes on to write: “Among the things Billy could not change were the past, the present, and the future.” Montana Wildhack wears the same prayer around her neck on a locket. The locket also contains “a photograph of her alcoholic mother.” Explain Vonnegut’s meaning. ................
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