Slaughterhouse Five Themes

Slaughterhouse Five is a confusing book to read because of the strange occurrences and frequent time traveling. Over the course of the book, Billy experiences some very strange things that aren't common or even real things that a reader would see in their life. First, Vonnegut discusses the Trafalmadorians at length. He describes them as "two, feet high, and green, and shaped like plumbers' friends. Their suctions cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm. The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions. (...) They had many wonderful things to teach Earthlings, especially about time. (26) A person reading this book would not have any personal experience with aliens, especially the fictional Trafalmadorians, so the scenes describing them and their planet can be a source of confusion. Also, the ideas of time and free will discussed in scenes involving the Trafalmadorians can get rather complex and
Billy will be engaged in one activity when suddenly, he is in a completely different year and location with no clear warning or transition. Billy could from being in the war to being a middle-aged optometrist to being a baby and back to the war in just a few paragraphs. One example is when Billy is first admitted to the POW camp and is taking a shower. When the shower turns on, he travels back to a time he was bathed as an infant. Suddenly, he is playing a round of golf, and is back on the Trafalmadorian spaceship after picking up the ball. These transitions are all very sudden, with seemingly random descriptions of mundane events in Billy's life (Vonnegut 84-85). The rapid transitions while traveling through time can easily make a reader lose track of what is going on if they are not paying complete