Discussion Questions
Chapters 1 - 2
Chapters 3 - 4
Chapters 5 - 6
Chapters 7 - 8
Chapters 9 - 10
- The author starts the book with “All this happened, more or less.” How does this affect your perception of the novel? Are you more inclined to think of this as a fiction, or a nonfiction? Do you think that Vonnegut will prove to be a reliable narrator?
- What does Starr mean by saying that Vonnegut should write an anti-glacier book? Do you think Starr is for or against war?
- How do you think the war affected Vonnegut’s views that “nobody was ridiculous or bad or disgusting?” Do you agree with this belief?
- The narrator remarks that the firebombing of Dresden killed more people than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Assuming this is true, which, in your opinion, is the worse of the two? The one that killed more people, or the one with atomic weapons?
- Do you think the “tralfamadorians” represent anything? (Perhaps that the war took his personality and his life away, and when he came back he had the “so it goes” sentiment, because he was immune to people’s death?)
- What is the significance of the various names of places, both real and unreal? Are these names intentional or coincidental? If intentional, how would these names help to enhance the story? {i.e. treated for nervous collapse at Lake Placid, plane crash on Sugarbush Mountain}
Chapters 3 - 4
- Why do you think the author chose to tell the story with time-traveling instead of in chronological form?
- Do you think the constant change of setting is confusing? Does it add or take away anything from the story?
- Why do you think the author chose to write this from the perspective of Billy Pilgrim? Why didn’t he just make himself the main character?
- Do you find it at all strange that the author remarks that the prisoners would be peaceful, share their food/water, and take turns standing up/lying down? Why do you think that these people, in such miserable circumstances, are caring for each other instead of looking after themselves? (pg 70)
- How do you feel about the author’s writing style? Do you like the book so far?
- Why might Billy be "seeing" St. Elmo's fire, a rare and beautiful phenomenon, after becoming a prisoner of war?
Chapters 5 - 6
- Why do you think the Germans let the Englishmen keep their excess food? Why wouldn’t they just take it by force, instead of trading nails and paint for it?
- What do you think is meant by “The water was dead” (pg 101)?
- Why do you think Billy put himself in the hospital ward for being crazy? Is this uncommon for someone with a mentally illness to recognize that they may need help?
- Rosewater remarks, “That’s the attractive thing about war. Absolutely everybody gets a little something” (pg 111). Do you think Vonnegut agrees with this statement? If not, why do you think he chose to include it?
- What effect does Vonnegut create by started chapter six with “Listen:”
- How come Pilgrim compares the faces of Russians to a radium dial? What does the scene in the cave, where the radium dial was the only source of light, have to do with this connection?
Chapters 7 - 8
- Do you think that Tralfamadore represents the war or Billy’s prison? Or is it simply meant to show that Billy is crazy?
- When the author writes things like, “Nothing happened that night. It was the next night that about one hundred and thirty thousand people in Dresden would die” (pg 165), does it spoil anything for you? Or does it add to the book?
- Does Vonnegut’s use of the f-word add anything to the book? Or, in your mind, is it unnecessary?
- How do you feel about the use of “So it goes” after any mention of death?
- Do you think Vonnegut is trying to send a message about human behavior? Or is his main message about war?
- Why does Pilgrim insist on becoming a "friend" to Kilgore Trout, even though the author is described by adjectives with negative connotations?
Chapters 9 - 10
- After finishing the novel, what is your opinion on the author’s writing style and the message?
- Some people say that Vonnegut was under the influence of drugs/alcohol while writing this novel. Do you agree with this? Do you think PTSD also influenced him?
- On page 198, Rumfoord states, “It had to be done”, referring to the Dresden bombings. Do you think Vonnegut agrees? Do you agree?
- Throughout the novel, nothing happens at the same time. Billy constantly travels through time. Is there any significance in Montana being on Tralfamadore while Billy is reading about her in a bookshelf? Or is this just an unrelated detail?
- Vonnegut puts this quote in different places - on a chain on Montana’s neck, and in Billy’s office: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” What is the significance of this quote, and do you think Vonnegut believes that there are some things we can change and some things we cannot?
- What is the significance of relating Vonnegut's alcohol-stained breath to the smell of rotting corpses? What could "roses and mustard gas" tell us about the smell of both?