Slaughterhouse - Five Discussion Questions

1. Why does Vonnegut choose to write a "jumbled and jangled" war book?

• to represent the confused and disastrous nature of war
• to represent the disruptiveness of the war on the lives of the soldiers that fought in it

2. What is the significance of the phrase "so it goes"?

• reflects a kind of comfort in the Tralfamadorian idea that although a person may be dead in a particular moment, he or she is alive in all the other moments of their life
• the repetition of the phrase points out the tragic inevitability of death

3. What is significant of the bird cry "poo-tee-weet"?

• symbolizes the lack of anything intelligent to say about war
• is as appropriate a thing to say as anything, since no words can really describe the horror of the Dresden firebombing

4. List the major themes of Slaughterhouse-Five.

• the destructiveness of war
• the illusion of free will, or free will versus fatalism
• the importance of sight
• for elaboration, see sparknotes

5. How does Vonnegut use time to communicate his themes?

• the absence of order of time might represent the disruptive nature of war or the state of mind of the soldiers after they witness the horrors of war
• represents the illogical nature of human beings thinking that they are confined to the rules of time, which is shown in the Tralfamadorian philosophy