... , he is taught that all time happens simultaneously, and therefore, nobody ever truly dies. At first this seems like a good thing, but to Billy Pilgrim, who cannot chose which aspects of his live to relive, brutal acts of war also live on forever. Billy repeatedly relives his time in Dresden, though ... uses dark irony in a very effective way, which not only disturbs the reader, but connects various events throughout the story. For example, a 44 year old high school teacher named Edgar Derby wanted to be able to fight in the war. He had some connections, and was able to get in. He survive...

• Word Count: 1466
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... double pneumonia in a German railroad yard. He was slightly delusional. Valencia Merble - Billy's wife, daughter of Lionel Merble, the founder and owner of the Iliad School of Optometry where Billy studies to become an optometrist. She's a very fat and unattractive woman, but with a kind personality. She dies of carbon monoxide poisoning ... idea of being able to perceive the past, present, and future all at once has Billy fascinated. They are little men, with an arm raised up high with one eyeball in the palm of its hand. Roland Weary - An eighteen year old recruit anti-tank gunner. He s...

• Word Count: 1657
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... born into a well-to-do family that was hit very hard by the Depression. Vonnegut went to public high school, unlike his two older siblings, and there gained early writing experience writing for the high school's daily paper. He enrolled at Cornell University in 1940, and, under pressure from his father and older ... Slaughter house Five" is a novel that is based almost completely off of Vonneguts experience in Dresdon. Billy Pilgrim experienced exactly what Vonnegut did in his own life. In many ways Vonnegut used Billy Pilgrim as a puppet to explain his own feelings and emotions from that...

• Word Count: 1839
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School