Summary by Seth Loh

There is always something captivating about sitting around and listening to Grandpa’s “crazy stories” (or Rob Travis’ for that matter). Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is no exception as it embodies that same gruff tone one might hear from their elders, albeit with a bit more science fiction.  Vonnegut describes himself and his book as:

“A fourth-generation German-American now living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod [and smoking too much], who, as an American infantry scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany, ‘The Florence of the Elbe,’ a long time ago, and survived to tell the tale. This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from.
Peace.”

As it were, the book takes readers through a sporadic “unstuck in time” journey of the life of Billy-Pilgrim. It jumps around in a non-linear manner from Pilgrim’s WWII experiences, to his alien abduction, to his marriage with his rich ugly wife Valencia, and everything in-between.

The very structure of the book, and the unique nature of the aliens reveal fascinating themes concerning the nonsense of war, human nature, and the meaning of existence. After all, asking, “Why terrible things happen?” is a normal human question and yet to the aliens – it’s pointless. According to the Tralfamadorians, everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen is simply structured that way. Or as they put it, “we are all bugs trapped in amber. There is no why.”

It’s interesting to consider our own lives in light of this same structure. What if we became “unstuck in time?” What would the “amber” moments of our lives look like and would we still care whether innocent people get massacred, animals get eaten, or the champagne goes flat? So it goes.