Vocabulary
Chapters One & Two
Chapters Three & Four
Chapters Five & Six
Chapters Seven & Eight
Chapters Nine & Ten
- Guggenheim Money - money granted by the Guggenheim Fellowship to people who demonstrate a great capacity for productive scholarship or fantastic creativity in the arts.
- “I really did go back to Dresden with Guggenheim money {God Love it} in 1967” (pg 1).
- Vonnegut demonstrated a “great capacity for productive scholarship” prior to 1967 - at this point, it is unclear why. For novels prior to this one? {Were there any?}
- And he goes to Dresden to do more research for his novel on it - Guggenheim money is what is “funding” this novel.
- I’d like to point out: “He said, too, that he had been kidnapped by a flying saucer in 1967” (pg 25). Perhaps this is an analogy for having gone to Dresden.
- Mutt and Jeff - a popular American comic, made by Bud Fisher in 1907. It followed the lives of two pretentious men with very different backgrounds but that have things in common.
- Vonnegut claims he and his friend Bernard O’Hare were “Mutt and Jeff” in the war (pg 4).
- Different backgrounds, but served in the war together, and were captured together.
- Perhaps suggests that their life in the war was like a somber comic strip, filled with dark humour
- trafficker - a buyer and seller of goods for profit
- “As a trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations, I had outlined the Dresden story many times” (pg 5).
- Admits that writing is how he survives - it makes him the money that sustains him.
- Simultaneously proves, however, that he is not simply writing for the money - he is writing for the story.
- Luftwaffe Saber - ceremonial sword carried by members of the German air force
- It’s a souvenir that Vonnegut brings back from the war, and that he still has at the time of writing.
- Why does he choose this to keep? Is it a significant symbol? {Open for discussion}
- “I wrote the Air Force back then, asking for details about the raid on Dresden” (pg 11).
- Eheu, fugaces labuntur anni - Not really vocabulary, but I thought it was interesting. This Latin phrase is left untranslated in the novel.
- “Alas! The fleeting years glide on” (pg 11).
- Preceded by “I really did go to see him. That must have been in 1964 or so…”, followed by “My Name is Yon Yonson”
- Suggests that he hasn’t really kept track of time. Everything is moving by so quickly, he can’t exactly pin down when things happened. “Yon Yonson” is a reference to the monotonous nature of life, which makes it even more difficult to determine the date of events.
- Ties in to his allusions to the things the people of the alien planet taught him about time.
- bigotry - intolerance towards those with opinions other than one’s own
- “History in her solemn page informs us that the crusaders were but ignorant and savage men, that their motives were those of bigotry unmitigated” (pg 15).
- Quote goes on to explain how the romantic view of them is as virtuous soldiers.
- They have “magnanimity” = generosity
- Helps strengthen the author’s hated of crusades and crusader
- ludicrous - foolish and unreasonable
- waif - homeless, helpless person
- As he was time-traveling in the woods behind German lines
- He had to give a speech to a group - worried that “All of these prosperous, solid men out there would discover now that they had elected a ludicrous waif” (pg 50).
- This is how he feels about himself during the war - he even asks to be left behind by the group
- But this point in time is not the war, and he gives a magnificent speech.
Chapters Three & Four
- patina - a thin, greenish layer that forms on the surface of metals
- “Lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal‘s boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths” {pg 53}
- Links appearance and meaning
- Billy “knows” a story about the commander’s golden boots just by looking at them.
- inoffensive - harmless
- “Three inoffensive bangs came from far away. They came from German rifles. The two scouts who had ditched Billy and Weary had just been shot” {pg 54}.
- Interesting how he calls these bangs harmless even though they kill two people. Perhaps suggesting that two more dead is nothing compared to the total devastation of war.
- Or perhaps he’s simply saying that these bangs were too far away to hurt him or Weary.
- John Birch Society - American political group that supports anti-communism and a limited government {greater control by citizens}
- “The stickers about the police and Earn Warren were gifts from Billy’s father-in-law, a member of the John Birch Society” {pg 57}.
- The fact that Billy put the stickers on his car gives evidence that Billy shares views with anti-communists and advocates for limited government.
- hearten - to make more cheerful or confident
- “The picture was widely published two days later as heartening evidence of how miserably equipped the American Army often was, despite its reputation for being rich” {pg 58}.
- Proves how photography can severely distort the war. The Germans even stage a capture of Billy for a picture, when captures were nothing like the picture showed.
- People at home rely so much on these pictures to feel confident that their country is winning the war or that the other countries are inferior. But, really, they can’t trust this source, even though it’s one of the only sources they have.
- St. Elmo’s Fire - a weather phenomenon caused by high electrical voltage; causes a glowing plasma to be emitted from an object. Often seen during thunderstorms.
- “Ever since Billy had been thrown into shrubbery for the sake of a picture, he had been seeing Saint Elmo’s Fire, a sort of electronic radiance around the heads of his companions and captors. It was in the treetops and on the rooftops of Luxembourg, too. It was beautiful” {pg 63}.
- The war could be the “thunderstorm” - and now he’s seeing the results of this war, simultaneously strange and beautiful.
- fourragère - a braided cord worn by soldiers under the medals and around their sides; distinguishes military units as a whole
- “The spit [of a German soldier] hit Roland Weary’s soldier, gave Weary a fourragère of snot and blutwurst and tobacco juice and Schnapps” {pg 65}.
- Distinguishes him as one of the captives. He doesn’t get to wear the pretty braided cord proudly as he marches through his home country; it’s a mark that distinguishes him as someone who failed, who was taken in by the other team.
- balderdash - senseless talk; nonsense
- “[Wild Bob] made the inside of poor Billy’s skull echo with balderdash” {pg 67}
- Wild Bob is only one soldier/commander suffering from this sort of thing; he’s imagining a better scenario, one in which he is proudly addressing his troops. But his words are no more significant than any other’s. They will be forgotten just as easily. His troops will never hear what he had to say. It’s all just balderdash.
- acrimonious - bitter
- madrigal - an unaccompanied vocal music composition
- “And now there was an acrimonious madrigal, with parts sung in all quarters of the car. Nearly everybody, seemingly, had an atrocity story of something Billy Pilgrim had done to him in his sleep” {pg 79}.
- They may all be nice people, but when provoked, they are going to complain. After all, they’ve been stuck in a cramped train car with limited food and water for nine days.
Chapters Five & Six
- rarefied - thin; separate from the concerns of ordinary people
- “The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti” {pg 87}.
- The double meaning in this word is great. Not only does the “spaghetti” appear thin, but it is not of use to the Tralfamadorians. They are not particularly worried about where all of the stars are going or about what is happening in those galaxies - why should they be?
- radium dial - clock dials painted with paint containing radium, which causes them to glow in the dark.
- “Out went the lights. Billy didn’t even know whether he was still alive or not. And then something ghostly floated in the air to his left. It had numbers on it. His father had taken out his pocket watch. The watch had a radium dial” {pg 90}.
- “There were more starving Russians with faces like radium dials” {pg 91}.
- The watch was comforting in the dark...later in the book, a Russian frees Pilgrim from barbed wire. Perhaps showing that Russians aren't really bad people. In fact, they're friendly, even when receiving no thanks in return
- rodomontades - boastful talk
- “They wrestled the Americans toward the shed door affectionately, filling the night with manly blather and brotherly rodomontades” {pg 95}.
- Before this passage, the narrator describes how the British thought these people were aging men coming straight from the front. Really, they are meeting “children” who barely know anything about the war, and many of which didn’t actually do a lot of “real” fighting. For now they’re treating them as comrades, but soon they’ll be treating them condescendingly.
- morphine - narcotic pain reliever used for moderate to severe pain
- Billy was given a shot of this after screaming at the Cinderella show.
- He wasn’t really in pain, but this would calm him down and make him sleepy. It’s not a real hospital, and they don’t have a lot of drugs, so they have to make do with what they have.
- The Brother Karamazov - a novel dealing with ethical debates regarding God, free will, and morality
- “[Rosewater] said that everything there was to know about life was in The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. “But that isn’t enough anymore,” said Rosewater” {pg 101}.
- Rosewater wants to change the world and to make it a better place. Knowing everything about life isn’t enough anymore because he wants to change life
- lugubrious - appearing or seeming sad and dismal
- “Derby now came to lugubrious attention” {pg 105}.
- This is followed by Derby telling the British officer that he doesn’t want the usual “pageantry” between officers and men. He didn’t like how the officers were still treating them as inferiors even when everyone was a prisoner of war. And so when the officer said something “offensive”, Derby came to attention, upset by how the officers were acting around the Americans.
- Green Berets - members of the U.S. Army Special Forces
- “In a tiny cavity in her great body she was assembling the materials for a Green Beret” {pg 121}.
- The Green Beret = Robert Pilgrim, their son. Meanwhile, Billy and his wife are discussing what war was like. When that Green Beret grows up, he’s going to understand what Billy was talking about at this time.
- estimable - worthy of great respect
- “Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor” {129}.
- I almost have to agree with what this man is saying. The way we treat the poor in the U.S. isn’t right. Our society as a whole values money far too much and wisdom far too little.
- Golgotha - the place where Jesus was crucified; a place of suffering or sacrifice; means “the skull”
- “Outside were Golgotha sounds of strong men digging holes for upright timbers in hard, hard ground” {pg 137}.
- The men are suffering as they are building this new latrine after the Americans destroyed their previous one.
- Turning a noun into an adjective!
- travesty - a false or distorted representation of something
- “[Billy] was the central clown in an unconscious travesty of that famous oil painting, “The Spirit of ‘76’” {pg 143}.
- Billy’s outfit was absolutely ridiculous. At home, the U.S. soldiers were represented as brave. courageous, and patriotic men, but Billy didn’t exactly fit this description. He was a small, weak, silly-looking boy who’d barely fought in the war at all.
- swagger stick - a short stick or riding crop carried by a uniformed person as a symbol of authority
- “The Englishman got up on the stage, and he rapped on the arm of a throne with a swagger stick” {pg 145}.
- The English see themselves as figures of authority to the Americans. This man is about to give a speech on the importance of personal hygiene. the English feel the need to educate these poor creatures and help them out, but the Americans don’t really want to hear it. They, apparently, don’t like listening to authority.
Chapters Seven & Eight
- Golliwogs - black character in children’s books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a ragdoll.
- “[The Austrian ski instructors] looked like golliwogs, like white people pretending to be black for the laughs they could get” {pg 156}.
- Not much significance, but it’s useful for the imagery to know what golliwogs are.
- repatriated - process of returning a person to their place of origin
- “‘Once the Russians are defeated,’ [Campbell] went on, ‘you will be repatriated through Switzerland’” {pg 163}.
- Campbell is trying to convince these prisoners to become Nazis, but they are not buying into it. Derby argues that the Russians are America’s friends and that they will not fight them. Plus, why would these people go back to war when they could simply stay in this malt syrup job until the war is over?
- harangue - to lecture someone at length in an aggressive or critical manner
- “The boys were harangued by a man in a full beard” {pg 166}.
- This man is Kilgore Trout. This verb gives us a good description of what his personality is like - he’s a stuck-up snob who treats his newspaper delivers, which are only young children, horribly.
- impudent - not showing due respect for another person
- “The adulation that Trout was receiving, mindless and illiterate as it was, affected Trout like marijuana. He was happy and loud and impudent” {pg 171}.
- Gives us more insight into his character. He’s not very bashful or polite when given attention - he hogs it and becomes this loud, boastful man.
- psychosomatic - caused or aggravated by something in the mind
- “Billy had powerful psychosomatic responses to the changing chords” {pg 173}.
- The music of the quartet affected him not only mentally but physically as well, turning him unwell and forcing him to sit down. The chords were bringing back something in his memory, the memory of the guards opening their mouths in shock after the bombings of Dresden.
Chapters Nine & Ten
- port arms - position of arms in which rifle is held diagonally in front of the body
- “[Valencia’s] bumper was at a high port arms” {pg 183}.
- Describes how much damage her car suffered from the crash...it was really bad! The bumper was smushed high up and at an extreme angle.
- bray - to speak a loud, harsh cry
- “Valencia turned off the engine, but then she slumped against the steering wheel, and the horn brayed steadily” {pg 183}.
- The connotation of the word bray is a sort of urgent yet exhausted tone, as if the speaker is giving up but needs everyone around them to know. Valencia was “giving up” her life, and she uttered her last urgent, attention-drawing call through her car.
- peevish - easily irritated, particularly by trivial things
- “‘He isn’t [echoing us] now,’ said Rumfoord peevishly. ‘The minute you go away, he’ll start doing it again’” {pg 193}.
- What happens to Pilgrim isn’t really Rumfoord’s business, but he has to share a room with the guy and he gets so annoyed by Pilgrim’s talking to himself that he declares that something is wrong with the guy. Rumfoord was just bothered by something that doesn’t really affect him and he overreacted, telling doctors that Pilgrim had echolalia. Of course, Pilgrim didn’t, but Rumfoord was so desperate to blame Pilgrim’s mutterings on something, even though it shouldn’t really matter.
- commiserate - to express or feel sympathy
- “Now his snoozing became shallower as he heard a man and a woman speaking German in pitying tones. The speakers were commiserating with somebody lyrically” {pg 195}.
- These Germans are speaking to horses. Pilgrim doesn’t know this, but he can tell that the speakers are not actually trying to get a message in English across to somebody. He can tell that, while they are speaking German, they are speaking in tones that an animal - in this case, the horse - would understand. They are communicating with the horse through the sound of their voices.
- patronize - to treat with an apparent kindness that hides a feeling of superiority
- reproach - an expression of disapproval or disappointment
- “These two horse pitiers moved back along the wagon to where they could gaze in patronizing reproach at Billy” {pg 196}.
- They can tell that Billy is a soldier who has probably been through a lot recently, so they do not want to be directly harsh on him - they act sort of kind, as they pity him as well as the horses. But at the same time they are really upset with him for treating these poor horses that way.
- gruff - abrupt in manner
- “Rumfoord questioned Billy gruffly, satisfied himself that Billy really had been in Dresden” {pg 197 - 198}.
- Rumfoord is still upset with Billy for his strange behaviors, and he doesn’t really want to talk to Billy, but he is overwhelmed with curiosity and eventually has to ask Billy about Dresden. But he doesn’t want to do it, really, so he asks quick questions and doesn’t speak to him for long.
- tawdry - showy but cheap and of poor quality
- “Billy left his room, went down the slow elevator, walked over to Times Square, looked into the window of a tawdry bookstore” {pg 200}.
- It’s not a particularly attractive bookstore - Billy can tell that it’s not a very good one, but the reason he’s drawn in is for the Kilgore Trout novels in the window,
- jaded - tired, bored, or lacking enthusiasm
- “A jaded sailor stepped away from a movie machine while the film was still running” {pg 205}.
- This is just a really cheap bookstore with some inappropriate stuff which, according to the sailor, isn’t that great. He is not particularly impressed by what he just paid to see.
- inert - unmoving
- “Billy and the Maori dug into the inert, unpromising gravel of the moon” {pg 213}.
- They are searching for corpses, so of course the gravel is going to be unmoving. And, even if they are intending on finding corpses, would that really make the gravel “promising”? It would really only be “promising” if it showed signs of life, which it doesn’t.