Reading Blog: Slaughterhouse - Five pgs. 119 - 135

The End of Chapter 5:

One of the most curious, fun moments in this reading was the part when Billy Pilgrim is walking around in night, and happens to go past a latrine, where all the Americans are having trouble in the bathroom. The war food from the welcoming ceremony had gotten to all of them, and now thy were excreting it. The funny thing about this is that at one point Billy Pilgrim looks inside the latrine and sees Kurt Vonnegut. This caught me by surprise because at one point I was wondering whether Billy Pilgrim was the character representing Vonnegut (the same person), however, now I know this isn't true. The specific quote on page 125 says: "That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."

Another interesting part of the end of the fifth chapter is when a German major comes into the hospital room and apologizes to his English friends for the bad behavior the Americans have. This major decides to read out loud a monograph written by Howard W. Campbell Jr. criticizing Americans. In this monograph, Campbell talks about the self - pity Americans have for themselves. The perfect sentence describing this is as follows: "They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves." (pg. 129) This specific part reminds me of the end of "A Clockwork Orange" because Alex is being beaten up, and he can't do anything about it, this leads him to have self - pity on himself. This only just relates Billy Pilgrim to Alex.

A very interesting part of this chapter is when Billy Pilgrim is at the zoo in Trafalmadore, and he is brought a mate. This would be the Earthling actress called Montana Wildhack. I am very intrigued about what will happen from now on in Trafalmadore. I think it is pretty clear Billy Pilgrim likes Montana (because of the wet dream he has with her later on in the chapter). This leads me to have questions such as: Will Montana play an important role from now on in the story? Will Billy have an affair with her? Will Valencia (Billy's wife) find out about this affair Billy had with Montana in another planet? How will she react? I believe all of this will happen, and I am wondering what the reactions will be. I remember that earlier in the novel Billy went unstuck in time into the future, in a moment where he revealed his being kidnapped by aliens and taken to the planet Trafalamdore. This creates a lot of tension, so Billy reveals he was there with Montana Wildhack. This is another reason that leads me to think something big will happen further on, and I want to find out.