Chapter 10 Post 2

After the Dresden bombing Billy and his fellow prisoners are put to the task of digging up the dead bodies. They were everywhere in the rubble and the body count was very high. The had to dig them up and then dispose of them. This reminds me a lot of the after effects of 9/11. After the twin towers fell, fire fighters had to dig through the rubble to find any survivors and the bodies that laid beneath. It is an awful thing that both Billy and the fire fighters had to do, but then again, so were the attacks made on Dresden and New York...

Chapter 10 Post 1

At the beginning of this chapter Vonnegut takes a break from the story and uses some first person narrative. He give us insight from his point of view rather than the character's. He talks about past events in his life, including the death of his father: "My father died many years ago now- of natural causes" (210). Soon after he goes back to his other narrative style and continues to the end of the story.

Chapter 9 Post 2

At one point during this chapter, Billy notices that all of the city is deserted, because the Germans heard the Russians are coming. Billy basically has the whole city to himself. He was able to go around and take whatever he wanted from the city. This reminded me a lot of the days after hurricane Katrina. Once New Orleans was flooded and everyone was gone, looters came and stole whatever they could. This is basically exactly what Billy was doing in Dresden.

Chapter 9 Post 1

This chapter begins with Billy still in the hospital after his plane crash accident. When he wakes up there is a man in the bed next to him. This man is a college professor. He is writing a paper on the booming success of the Dresden raid. He said that it was kept a secret for so long "for fear that a lot of bleeding hearts might not think it was such a wonderful thing to do" (191). I feel that this makes him a stock character. I say this because a lot of military and media people hide the real truth just to keep people from getting upset. People should have known about the raid as soon as it happened but they kept it from them just as the media does a lot of the time today. This, to me, makes his a very stereotypical character.

Chapter 8 Post 2

In parts of this chapter we find Billy in the middle of a bomb raid in Dresden. He and the other Americans were put in an old meat locker for protection. Sometimes these raids were false alarms and this reminded me of the book The Children of Willesden Lane. This is a book about the kindertransport during World War II. She is in an orphanage and they are constantly interrupted by these bomb raids where they have to go to shelter for cover, and much like Billy's situation they were often times false alarms.

Chapter 8 Post 1

In this chapter we meet a commander of a unit that was supposed to only fight on the Russian front. His name is Howard W. Campbell. When we meet him, Vonnegut introduces him with direct characterization. He writes, "Campbell was an ordinary-looking man, but he was extravagantly costumed in a uniform of his own design. He wore a ten-gallon hat and black cowboy boots..." (162) and continues to give us a word for word description of this new character. Vonnegut is very detailed and leaves nothing up the imagination which makes this direct characterization.

Chapter 7 Post 2

In a way this feels very similar to the movie series Final Destination. In these movies, the main character always knows how everyone around them will die. They then try to save all of them but have no luck saving them. In Billy's case he knew that the plane would crash, but he could not stop it from happening because every moment is trapped like a bug in amber.

Chapter 7 Post 1

This chapter is marked with a conflict. Billy is on a plane with a bunch of other Optometrists heading to a trade conference. "Billy, knowing the plane was going to crash soon, closed his eyes..." (156) and waited for what he knew would happen. This ends up being true when the plane crashes into the side of a mountain. This is an external conflict because it is between Billy, the Character, and an outside force of the plane and the mountain.

Chapter 6 Post 2

At one point in this chapter the Englishman that beat up Lazzaro came back and talked to him. Lazzaro responds with a comment about revenge. He thinks that revenge is the sweetest thing in life. This reminds me a lot of the move Law Abiding Citizen. In this movie, the main character is forced  to watch some men rape and kill his wife and daughter. He then takes several years to plan out how he will kill the men who did it and all of the people in the criminal justice system who let the men get away with it. The entire theme of this movie is revenge and getting even for what others do. I found Lazzaro's case very similar.

Chapter 6 Post 1

In this chapter, the soldiers are finally moved to Dresden. As they arrive they are greeted by German civilians. One of these civilians, a surgeon, gets into it with Billy. This man acts as a foil character. Their personalities conflict probably because of their different nationalities during this time of war. This man is put into the book by Vonnegut because he shows the tension between the two countries. Although the altercation was not a huge deal, it was started because they didn't like the looks of each other.

Chapter 5 Post 2

This idea that the aliens are putting into Billy's head about no free will and every moment being planned out should sound very framiliar to all of us at Roncalli. I say this because it is very similar to what we believe as Catholics. We believe that God has a pre-determined plan for all of us. The only difference is that we believe that we have control over this plan; God just knows the answer.

Chapter 5 Post 1

As Billy continues to communicate with the aliens he learns more of their ideas and beliefs. They teach him that there is no free will and that every moment is planned out. Billy wants to spread this word to other people. In doing this, he is creating irony. This is because he has to use his free will to go out and spread this word against free will.

Chapter 4 Post 2

In this chapter, they are on the train going to their prison camp. The men begin dying because of the awful conditions. One of these men is Weary, but before he passes he makes his entire train car know that the reason for his death is Billy. Afterwards everyone is against him and one man is out to kill him. This reminds me a lot of the movie The Dark Knight Rises. At the end of the movie the entire city of Gothem is out to get Batman because they think that he killed Harvey Dent. This is not true but they still chase Batman. He is innocent but nobody will ever believe that. I feel like Billy is in the same situation because everyone will always believe the words of the man who dies, Weary.

Chapter 4 Post 1

In this chapter, Billy continues his journey on the train with the rest of the passengers. As he sleeps he continues to have flashbacks into his past. During one of these flashbacks he is back on the spaceship of the aliens that had supposedly abducted him. He asks the aliens why they chose him, and they responded with a metaphor. They ask him, "Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?" (77) and Billy in fact had. They then go on to explain that they all are "trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why" (77). I am not exactly sure what this means, but i am very sure that it will come into play at some point.

Chapter 3 Post 2

While in Prison, the Germans take all of the prisoners to another location. Billy is packed in along with all of the other captive Americans into train cars. They are so crammed in that only some could sleep and the others must stand. They take turns doing this and pass around as a helmet as a toilet. At one point the train doesn't move for two days. These conditions are so bad they remind me of the boats that slaves were brought on from Africa. These american soldiers were treated as badly as the slaves.

Chapter 3 Post 1

In this chapter we find Billy and Weary imprisoned by the Germans. As they go along doing what they are ordered to do, Billy continues to have flashbacks into his past. He goes back to his job and life he had before the war. In his flashbacks "Billy traveled in time". One of them took him to see "into the glass eyes of a jade green mechanical owl", but this is not actually an owl, but "was Billy's optometer in his office in Ilium" (56). He continues to have these flashbacks every time he closes his eyes. I have a feeling that these flashbacks will play a huge role as the novel progresses.

Chapter 2 Post 2

While Billy is in Germany, he becomes close with a group of three other guys. Two of which are scouts and one is an insecure gunner. The gunner, Roland Weary, refers to him and the scouts as the three musketeers, until Billy came along... The scouts decided to ditch the Weary and Billy and Weary blames Billy. This is a little bit like the movie The Toy Story. I see this because Woody had the life. He was Andy's favorite and he pretty much ran the show.Then along comes Buzz who unintentionally takes everything from Woody. They end up both getting separated from Andy. In this case Billy would resemble Buzz as he comes in a messes things up for Weary.

Chapter 2 Post 1

The main purpose for chapter two was to get an insight into our main character. Vonnegut begins the real story in this chapter so he introduces us to Billy Pilgrim. We are given a vivid image right off the bat by Vonnegut's use of imagery. Billy is "a funny-looking youth-tall and weak, and shaped like a bottle of Coca-Cola" (23). Through this description I have a perfect picture in my head of that Billy looks like. This is very important for an author to do because it allows us readers to see exactly what is going on.