Slaughterhouse-Five Quotes

“So then I understood. It was war that made her so angry. She didn’t want her babies or anybody else’s babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies.

So I held up my right hand and I made her a promise: ‘Mary,’ I said, ‘I don’t think this book of mine is ever going to be finished. I must have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away. If I ever do finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won’t be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.’

‘I tell you what,’ I said, ‘I’ll call it “The Children’s Crusade.”’

She was my friend after that.

(Chapter 1) (Kurt Vonnegut)

Analysis

The excerpt appears in Chapter 1, where Vonnegut, who is also a minor character in the novel, pays a visit to another war veteran and the author’s “old war buddy” Bernard O’Hare. Bernard O’Hare’s wife, Mary, shows her discomfort and is also cross with Vonnegut when he reveals his intention of penning down his experience of World War II in a book. Mary believes that the young American soldiers who went to the war were actually babies, often not more than the age of fourteen or sixteen, who are massacred unnecessarily. She does not want Vonnegut to portray them as heroes like John Wayne or Frank Sinatra. She has observed the growing affinity of writers to glorify war and soldiers rather than condemning war and portray it as it is: cruel and pointless. The author himself has observed this tendency and has consciously tried to write something that doesn’t glorify war: he has taken more than twenty years to write the novel. Vonnegut, hence, promises Mary that he will never do such a thing and dedicates the novel to her.

“It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?’”

(Chapter 1) (Kurt Vonnegut)

Analysis

Vonnegut tells this to his publisher Seymour Lawrence. He is embarrassed of submitting such a short book which reads in a very unique way. It is fragmented with narrative shifts and time shifts. Vonnegut explains that war in itself is futile and there is nothing unique that can be told of it; hence, even writing a book on such a futile endeavor, however fragmented and short it is, must be an achievement. It is like a bird singing a song when asked about a massacre, symbolizing the utter futility of any attempt to make sense of a massacre. It is merely meant to communicate the fact that life continues to exist even after such a devastation like World War II. At the end of the novel too, the bird is mentioned, where the novel leaves the readers with many unanswered questions regarding life after a war.

“‘If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings,’ said the Tralfamadorian, ‘I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by “free will.” I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.’” (Ch. 4)

(Chapter 4) (Tralfamadorians)

Analysis

This quotation appears in the novel in Chapter 4 when a Tralfamadorian makes Billy Pilgrim understand how they perceive time on Tralfamadore. The question of free will arises when time is viewed in three dimensions. Since the Tralfamadorians see a four-dimensional universe, for them, time is nonlinear and moments are inevitable and permanent. Since the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously and nothing can change the course of what already is, there is no question of free will. It is only on earth, where humans can only see in three dimensions, believe in the linear nature of time and the existence of cause-effect: hence, arises the idea of “free will.”

“There are no telegrams on Tralfamadore. But you’re right: each clump of symbols is a brief, urgent message—describing a situation, a scene. We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the other. There isn’t any particular relationship between all the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”

(Chapter 5) (Tralfamadorians)

“Billy had a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going, even though he was unenthusiastic about living. A lot of patients who saw the prayer on Billy’s wall told him that it helped them to keep going, too. It went like this: ‘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.’ Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.”

(Chapter 3) (Kurt Vonnegut)

“So it goes.”

(Chapter 1) (Kurt Vonnegut)

“And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt.”

(Chapter 1) (Kurt Vonnegut)

“The Americans and their guards and Campbell took shelter in an echoing meat locker which was hollowed in living rock under the slaughterhouse. There was an iron staircase with iron doors at the top and bottom. Down in the locker were a few cattle and sheep and pigs, and horses hanging from iron hooks. So it goes.”

(Chapter 8) (Kurt Vonnegut)

“’If you protest, if you think that death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood a word I’ve said.’ Now he closes his speech as he closes every speech with these words: ‘Farewell, hello, farewell, hello.’”

(Chapter 6) (Kurt Vonnegut)

“The Second World War in Europe was over. Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street. The trees were leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped. Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, ‘Poo-tee-weet?”

(Chapter 10) (Kurt Vonnegut)