Slaughterhouse - Five Chapter 9 Focus Questions

1. How does Valencia die?

• carbon monoxide poisoning after she was in an accident on her way to the hospital to see Billy

2. How had the army improved Robert?

• "He was all straightened out now... and he was a leader of men."

3. What mental disease does Rumfoord think Billy has? Why does he think he has this disease?

• echolalia: makes people immediately repeat things that well people around them say
• because Billy was saying that had been in Dresden

4. What might Billy choose as his happiest moment? Why?

• "his sundrenched snooze in the back of the wagon."
• it was quiet and peaceful and Billy was so tired all he wanted to do was sleep
• it was before he had to see the horrors of the bombing, the bodies underneath the rubble

5. What is the only thing Billy cries about in the war? Why do you think Billy cried about this and not about anything else?

• the condition of the horses
• he finally realizes the impact of the bombing, he was snapped out of his daze

6. What is Professor Rumfoord's opinion of the raid on Dresden? Why does Billy say that "it was alright"?

• "It had to be done"
• he learned it was alright because of the aliens, he learned to see things with tralfamadorian philosophy, that events are unchangeable

7. What is significant about Zircon-212?

• shows that Billy's being "unstuck in time" and his travel to Tralfamadore was not real, it was an escape from reality that he created to be able to cope with the things he saw

8. What two acquaintances does Billy indirectly encounter in the "tawdry bookstore"? How?

• Montana Wildhack, the magazine and the movie
• Roland Weary, the picture of the woman and the pony

9. What happens to Billy on the New York radio show?

• he talks about the Tralfamadorians
• he is kicked off the show at the next break