I’m Not Dead!

I’ve been a little absent from this blog (even though I’ve only made like three posts), but I assure you. I’m not dead. I’m a little backlogged with work from school and whatnot but I’m gonna try and repost one of my reviews from my old blog maybe tonight. I’m feeling Basket Case or Parents.

I would ask what you guys would prefer but honestly, I don’t know who reads this. I frankly don’t care if you, the person reading this right now, are perhaps the one person to ever read this. I find these posts therapeutic. It brings a sense of importance to my important film ramblings and all of my chaotic nonsense that runs through my head. I’m hoping it allows me to organize my thoughts on film and helps me ground my arguments as to why I hate certain films, etc.

So, I don’t really have much else to say, but I should include a photo. So here you guys go:

Confused? You should be. It’s the Spanish poster for this piece of shit movie called A Gnome Named Gnorm from the 90s. I highly recommend you guys check it out. I also reviewed this movie with a group of friends in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECcsWvuJBUI

Check out that channel and subscribe if you want to!…okay, I’m done with my plug…have a nice evening.

Message from Beyond the Grave

Hello my followers. (If you exist or even check on this.) I am just sending this out there to inform you that I will now be communicating through the frozen foods section on my new blog We Know A Place Where Mrs. Buckley Lives

I’ll be reviewing movies (primarily horror) with my classic insane humor (?…is it really that funny?). Check it out!

Part Four of the Poetry Analysis Trilogy

We’ve reached the end of our epic saga, our fine adventure, our sprawling journey. There have been rough times and there have been great times. Remember when we found that Disco Worm and he attacked me? Ahhhh….that was great. Well anywhos….it’s finally time for the last blog post. The last post for classwork assignments that is. I’ll probably start ranting in my own ways about the next book I’m reading on another post. This last poem is from the Renaissance period, and I’ll say, it’s quite delectable.

“St. Crispin’s Day Speech” by William Shakespeare from Henry V

What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Yes, yes. I know that was a bit of a read. And for those of you who are not used to reading Shakespeare (if there are any of that kind reading this blog), I know that was a doozy. Don’t worry. I’ll explain. The connection between this and Slaughterhouse-Five had to do with two themes. There was the theme of social class and how it affected the soldier’s day-to-day lives in the novel. The other theme had to do with the same theme seen in the contemporary poem selection, “The Rule”. This can be found in my earlier posts. Have fun.

Form: Any basic Shakespeare nerd knows that everything he did was in iambic pentameter, that is unless it was in prose. If that was the case, it wasn’t in iambic pentameter. Yes. Mmmm. A few lines do, however, break the natural flow of things. “The fewer men, the greater share of honour.” This is to emphasize this part of the poem/speech. It is a moment that should be paid closely attention to, because it begins to illustrate the theme of the poem/speech.

Imagery/Figurative Language:

“Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’ “

This imagery in this quote supports the idea that to die or be maimed in battle is a thing to be proud of because it allows you to be part of a bigger cause and to not have died or be wounded in vain. Everyone is equal and everyone is together. To display a scar from battle would be to show that the said soldier is proud of his collaboration with soldiers and his cause.

Music/Sound: The rhythm of the poem/speech is that of “da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum”. Any extra syllables within the rhythm signify a great moment that could mean a change in tone or perhaps emphasize a certain aspect or theme within the poem. It is supposed to have such a rhythm to keep things flowing throughout the poem/speech as a whole.

Theme, Target, Title: The theme of being marked for death by being a soldier is prevalent throughout. This also correlates with the theme of social class within the war itself. Once a soldier is marked for death or is injured, ranks do not matter, everyone is equal to the other. This is similar by comparing it to the point in Slaughterhouse-Five where Billy and several other soldiers who do not care much for him are severely injured. As a result, they all have a unique bond that keeps them alive until they are separated into their work areas in Dresden.

Emotion: The emotion expressed within this poem is one of courage. It unites all social classes together in dark times and it brings everyone to the point where it is almost a comforting thing to die in war. This is most likely due to the fact that people will die in company and not be alone; this will allow them to not have many fears in the war, and therefore unite everyone not only by being marked for death, but just by having the company of each other.

I’d like to point out that this last post has taken me the longest to do. While I have been trying to complete this post, I have watched four Youtube videos, read an entire article about Bladerunner, posted on Facebook three times, helped my sister find a tee-shirt, eaten pizza, and talked to my mother about various things that vex me and destroy my self-esteem. It would appear as if my subconcious does not wish for this post to be completed. Well take that, brain! Ha! What are you going to do now?

Well, this is the end. My only friend, the end. Ha I quoted a Doors song. That’s a first for an online blog post. But now I have done it. There must be so many things in store for my brain and quoting blogs in the future. So long. You will never hear from “School Assignment Me” again.

There’s Always Money in the Blog Post

No. No there isn’t. I’m doing this for free. No payment is involved. That was merely a reference to one of my favorite shows, Arrested Development. If you don’t like it, go home. If you’re already home, find something better to do like….well go lick your cat or something.

Here is the third part in these poems of misery and woe. It is from the Modernism period. It is entitled:

“During the Second World War” by Charles Reznikoff

During the Second World War, I was going home one night

along a street I seldom used. All the stores were closed

except one—a small fruit store.

An old Italian was inside to wait on customers.

As I was paying him I saw that he was sad.

“You are sad,” I said. “What is troubling you?”

“Yes,” he said, “I am sad.” Then he added

in the same monotone, not looking at me:

“My son left for the front today and I’ll never see him again.”

“Don’t say that!” I said. “Of course, you will!”

“No,” he answered. “I’ll never see him again.”

 

Afterwards, when the war was over,

I found myself once more in that street 

and again it was late at night, dark and lonely;

and again I saw the old man alone in the store.

I bought some apples and looked closely at him:

his thin wrinkled face was grim

but not particularly sad. “How about your son?” I said.

“Did he come back from the war?” “Yes,” he answered.

“He was not wounded?” “No. He is all right.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Fine!”

He took the bag of apples from my hands and groping inside

took out one that had begun to rot

and put in a good one instead.

“He came back at Christmas,” he added.

“How wonderful! That was wonderful!”

“Yes,” he said gently, “it was wonderful.”

He took the bag of apples from my hands again

and took out one of the smaller apples and put in a large one.

 

I found myself thinking of the common phrase in Slaughterhouse-Five, “So it goes.” This phrase always follows the description of one dying or suffering a miserable experience, yet while in this one, it is the opposite. It will make more sense in my explication.

 

Form: The form is clearly that of a narrative poem almost told in prose. There are only two stanzas and it is very easy to read. This also may be a reason why it was easy to connect to Vonnegut’s novel. Both are structured very similarly in style. This is perhaps done to show the simplicity of things and how they can always happen. Whether it is death, or survival.

 

Title, Target, Theme: The title is “During the Second World War”. This title has a lot to do with Slaughterhouse-Five due to the fact that a majority of the story takes place during World War Two and the tension filled build up to the firebombing of Dresden. There is no necessary target other than the reader because a story is being told and nothing else. The theme relates to a recurring theme in Slaughterhouse-Five. The theme in this is that to survive war and be a survivor in general is “wonderful”. This relates to a mirrored theme in Vonnegut’s novel. To be a victim of violence or to die a severe and painful death is a part of life. “So it goes.” Each piece of literature has a single thought to conclude an event. It shows that war is structured the same all around, just the outcomes are different. And just because the outcomes are different, it doesn’t mean the way they come to be is different, in fact they are more similar in nature than thought.

 

Music/Sound: The “sound” or mood of the poem is given through several words in the last stanza. “Grim”, “dark”, “lonely”, “wrinkled”. These words depict the feeling of the loss of something or the opportunity cost for someone or something’s survival. The old man is wrinkled and grim looking despite the fact that his son is all right. He perhaps looks this way because he knows that it came at a great cost. The word wrinkled echoes through to the apples as well. Everyone has found an apple every once and a while where the skin has began to wrinkle up and wither away. These types of words create a slow, withering, dying feeling throughout the poem.

 

Imagery/Figurative Language:

“He took the bag of apples from my hands and groping inside

took out one that had begun to rot”

This imagery is very reminding of the soldiers and various people involved in the war removing bodies from the destroyed towns, villages, and battlefields. While the apple is just an apple in the imagery, it is rotting, and the image of rot can only evoke a mindset of death and decay.

Emotion: A bit of melancholy feeling is given off by this poem despite the somewhat cheerful ending. It ends with the old man taking out a weak apple and replacing it with a bigger, stronger apple. It is almost as if while survival can be wonderful, someone or something suffers in order for the other to survive.

 

One more.

 

I just want to let you know, good luck. We’re all counting on you.

 

I don’t know why I wrote that either. I think I am slowly going insane. Wheeeeee!

There is No Poetry Analysis, Only Zuul

So now it is part two of my four part demise. Here is the contemporary poem.

“The Rule” by Shail D. Patel

Discipline. Free will

Doesn’t mean freewheel.

But what about Eros? Let

Eros harrow whom he will.

I have sipped my sip

And poisoned the well.

I am well pleased with my thirst.

I know my thirst no evil.

You’ll die of thirst, Shail.

If  the salt sea wills.

 

Well golly gee willy that was short. Okay so basically I feel that this connects to the book in the way that Billy has essentially accepted his own fate because he has seen his death by becoming unstuck in time. In this poem, the major theme seems to be accepting that everything that is, simply is, and it cannot be changed.

 

Form: Each section is only two lines. I believe that this is because it is merely a statement of what is and what will happen, These things are not described in great detail, because they will be detailed enough when they happen.

 

Title, Target, Theme: The title is “The Rule” and it could very well follow with the theme that once something is, it is, and it cannot be changed. This is a rule within itself that does not allow change unless time and the universe say it will change.

 

Music/Sound: The sound or flow of the poem is rather short and abrupt. If one were to read this poem aloud, he or she would be surprised at how quickly the whole thing is over with. Each line is short because it is not stating an event, but more so a manner of what is.

 

Imagery/Figurative Language: There is not much imagery here, but there is a reference to the Greek god of love, Eros. This reference could possibly mean that love will encompass whoever it finds, but it will only do so with the will and power of a higher authority. This could possibly insinuate the idea that time and Fate and the universe are the only real factors in determining change.

 

Emotion:The emotions expressed within this poem are rather flat and monotonous. This also comes across as intentional as the poem is not intended to bestow emotion in the reader but rather thought. It is this way of thinking that allows the reader to understand and comprehend the poem as a whole.

 

Yay! Another one. Take it away…Bil–you know what? I’m sick of Billy. He’s fired.

I’m Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

I am back to make my first of the last four appearances on this blog of doom and hatred. Well I may actually use it later to post about my opinions of literature, but it will never be stricken with the assignments of school ever again. Now I have to do posts about poetry relating to the themes and whatnot of Slaughterhouse-Five. So here is the Romanticism poem I found:

“War is Kind” by Stephen Crane

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.

Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky

And the affrighted steed ran on alone,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

      Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,

      Little souls who thirst for fight,

      These men were born to drill and die.

      The unexplained glory flies above them,

      Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom—

      A field where a thousand corpses lie.

Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.

Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,

Raged at his breast, gulped and died,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

      Swift, blazing flag of the regiment,

      Eagle with crest of red and gold,

      These men were born to drill and die.

      Point for them the virtue of slaughter,

      Make plain to them the excellence of killing

      And a field where a thousand corpses lie.

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button

On the bright splendid shroud of your son,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

 

Connection: This poem relates to the novel in two ways of theme. There is the theme of knowing one’s fate and being unable to change the future because it is set in stone. The other theme is that of the destructiveness of war. Both themes are present within this poem as war is told to be something pleasant because the people it claims were meant to die. The overall violent nature of war is displayed because of the mere fact that it is killing people. In fact, the speaker may be corrupted by war to the point where he or she believes the entire concept of government sponsored violence is okay.

 

Explication: See the following thingies.

 

Form: If one looks closely, the poem has form. Each stanza that does not begin with “do not weep” is indented. These stanzas describe the horrors of war and what the said “maiden” should be weeping about. The “do not weep” stanzas having normal form means that it is a common occurrence for one to urge a sorrowful human into feeling okay with war because it is natural and a born right.

 

Title, Target, Theme: The title is meant to show that war can be seen as a person who does not wish to harm people or cause destruction and merely wants to exist. This adds sympathy to the subject of war itself and does not create so much lamenting when thinking of it. The target is the “maiden” and all weeping “maidens” out there in the world. It is supposed to create the message that war is worth crying about and it is not kind by saying that it is. It is done in a way of reverse psychology by making it seem like the speaker is being brainwashed into thinking that all of this violence is okay because it is a natural right.

 

Emotion: The emotion being expressed in this poem is clearly that of gloom or remorse. Perhaps it is the emotion of one who is frustrated with his or her mistakes and he or she is trying to justify actions that could be viewed as morally wrong. It is all done with major contrast in between stanzas. While one stanza addresses the actual violent nature of war, the other reinforces the idea of war by saying that all war is good in the end. It is a never ending game of ping pong, with the opinion bouncing back and forth between the speaker and the reader.

 

Music/Sound: The words that Crane chooses to create a soundscape for his poem are seen mainly within each indented stanza. Words like “booming”, “drill”, “blazing”, and “swift” not only create actually sounds within the mind, but stimulate the mind into seeing the powerful and glorious violence of war.

 

Imagery/Figurative Language: Important imagery appears in the second stanza. Not necessarily the fourth stanza though, because some of the imagery introduced in the second stanza is so haunting that it overlaps into the fourth stanza and certain phrases are repeated.

      Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom—

      A field where a thousand corpses lie.

This line holds a lot of power within its words because the last line is derived from second to last line, and the last line holds such a powerful presence that it repeats at the end of the fourth stanza. The imagery here is clear. There is a huge great battle field, and the battle can almost be seen as epic or godlike, similar to ones seen in Greek epics. This imagery leads to the horrifying, yet mesmerizing image of a field filled with corpses. Only a battle of godlike proportions could cause such a catastrophic amount of casualties.

 

And uhh…That’s it for this post. Take it away, Billy!

 

I don’t know why I wrote that. And I don’t know who Billy is either.

Goodnight, Sweet Prince

Well here we are, at the very end of my section posts for this educational project.. But don’t you worry. I haven’t left yet. There’s more to come. And yes. I’m groaning too. But it’s all right, because it will be fun! It will be educational! It will be filled with literary insight! Right. With that, let’s get started on the beginning of the end.

Summary:

Billy, of course, is trapped in Dresden. He is technically a slave, working in a factory under the guard of German troops. He then travels forward to when he is on the plane that crashes and damages his brain. Did I mention that Vonnegut mentions that earlier in the book? Oh, I guess not. Well, Vonnegut mentions earlier that Billy is on a plane that crashes and “damages” his brain. Billy is not necessarily damaged, but people think he is because of his strange condition in the hospital. Instead he is silently thinking up ways to start spreading the message of the Tralfamadorians. While he is in the hospital, his wife, Valencia, panics and dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while driving to the hospital. This death is caused by the crash she was involved in that tore off her muffler pipe, and she kept driving. Billy misses his wife’s funeral. Billy’s son comes home. Billy’s children visit him in the hospital. So it goes. Finally, Billy travels back in time to when Dresden is firebombed. It is horrific, but Billy and a few hundred prisoners survive the bombing. They then are taken with guards to wander about the ruins, until they are locked in a stable. They wait to be let out of the stable every day until one day, they find that the stable is unlocked and WWII has ended. YAY.

Theme:

I believe the theme of the final section to be that of mental strength. Billy has finally come to terms with the fact that he knows his life is unstuck in time and he sees the world the way a Tralfamadorian sees it. This somehow guides him throughout the rest of the novel, as his unfortunate misadventures are not nearly as dreadful as they could have been. Everything has taken a stronger and lighter outlook on life and that can most likely be attributed to Billy finally using his wits and becoming the man he knows he is in the future.

Symbol:

 The red traffic light. While Billy is walking down the street of Dresden, he begins to feel around in his pockets for the strangely shaped objects. He wants to know what they are. Right as he actually feels them, He has stopped because the traffic light was red and his group does not wish to cross the street. This is a symbol of warning. Whatever these objects were, they are most likely from the Tralfamadorians and they are not meant to be known, as was already told to Billy. His further fascination with them and the light turning red is a surefire sign from the universe that he cannot and should not go down such roads of fascination. (Vonnegut 192)

Quotes:

“It was Fate, of course, which had costumed him – Fate, and a feeble will to survive.” (Vonnegut, 193) This quote not only means that he is just in a misfortunate situation, but that Billy has also been “costumed” or granted with the gift of being unstuck in time. It is that gift that allows Billy to keep pushing onward.

“Billy, knowing the plane was going to crash pretty soon, closed his eyes, traveled in time back to 1944.” (Vonnegut 198) Billy knows everything that happens now, he shares an omnipotent power with the narrator, or Vonnegut. This allows him to accept things as they are and almost come off as wise to the reader.

“The true things were time-travel.” (Vonnegut 200) This quote struck me the most because in a way it is also talking about the true man Billy Pilgrim is. Throughout the book he has been feeble and hiding and pathetic, but time travel has changed him. The statement of time travel being a true thing makes the entire persona of Billy through travel and adventure all the more powerful.

Devices:

Metaphor- “On his palm rested a two-carat diamond and a partial denture.” (Vonnegut 194) Billy takes these out of his pockets when in Dresden. These are the two objects he has been feeling in his pocket. He grins. Despite all the trouble that could have been. He has been guided by two things worth value. This is a bit of a revelation for Billy, as he now knows that things are definitely better than they could be.

Setting- The slaughterhouse for pigs is now a shelter for the American prisoners of war. (Vonnegut 194) It is interesting to use the slaughterhouse as a place of shelter for the prisoners. It gives off the effect that all of the soldiers are actually just cattle and pigs being slaughtered for the masses. They are only seen as an effective and helpful factor in society by the Germans, so this setting is fitting.

Anecdote- “Speaking of people from Poland: Billy Pilgrim accidentally saw a Pole hanged in public…” (Vonnegut 198) The strange and random anecdote is in style of Vonnegut being random. I believe it was almost as if Vonnegut was reminding the reader that he or she is reading a Vonnegut book, and that everything has a twisted meaning, or little to no meaning at all.

Personification: “…Billy didn’t get to see Dresden do one of the most cheerful things a city is capable of doing…which is to wink its lights on one by one.” (Vonnegut 201) The personification of Dresden creates a feeling of sadness when the entire city is bombed. It adds more sympathy to all of the inhabitants. The city itself is being killed, almost as if it were a giant living being.

Metaphor within a Metaphor: Howard W. Campbell Jr. (Introduced by Vonnegut on 206) Howard Campbell has covered himself with a multitude of colors and various emblems for his Nazi uniform. He explains every single one because each color and shape is a metaphor for something he believes in. This is a metaphor within itself because it shows how vain the Nazi party were and how war can bring out the worst of men.

Response:

I was very satisfied with the end of Slaughterhouse Five. I realize that all of my analytic posts may be literally nothing but nonsense because I could just be an idiot and Vonnegut may be a genius. I may just not understand his works enough yet to get the full message of the book. But what I did get from it is that Vonnegut wanted to show how there isn’t just a war to make a man a soldier, but everyone is a soldier due to the constant battles in life. Whether the battles be with family, friends, prejudice, idols, enemies, there is always a war. And life is scary. No man wants to enter that mental warfare with life. But every person who lives has lived through the battle and continues to fight the war. You can see the growth and appreciation increase in Billy as he progresses throughout the novel. At first, he does not wish to be anywhere; Billy is feeble minded. As the novel progresses, he becomes unstuck in time. He sees that life does in fact get better if he gets through the situations that Billy finds himself in. And he eventually overcomes his fear and feeble-mindedness too escape in the end and finally be free of all of his self-inflicted burden.

The Late Blog Post of Frustration and Procrastination

Summary:

The section begins with Billy wandering throughout his hotel room on his wedding night and he suddenly travels back to the prison camp on the night where he was in the hospital. He wakes up because he feels like there is a strong and dangerous animalistic presence within the room. It turns out that the source of the feeling is two strangely shaped objects in his small fur coat. He is informed that there is nothing to worry about and that the objects will bring him good luck as long as he does not try to learn the nature of the objects. Then he travels back to his zoo on Tralfamadore where he meets Montana Wildhack, another prisoner trapped in the zoo that the Tralfamadorians intend to be his mate. He returns to what is supposed to be present day. He is chastised by his daughter and suffers the many complaints about his so called “insanity”. Billy feels rather disappointed that his daughter does not see the world in the same manner he does. He then travels back to the prison camp where a fellow soldier named Lazzaro tells Billy that he will kill him on behalf of Roland Weary’s death. The narrator then describes that Billy, in the future, is famous due to his analysis of Tralfamadorian culture and he constantly speaks of his death, which he knows is caused by Lazzaro.

Theme:

I believe the theme of this section to be that of insanity. As the section continues, Billy’s behavior becomes more and more irrational. A strange change occurs within Billy, and possibly the narrator. There is a rather…erm…disturbing underlying tone of sexual tendencies throughout the section. Billy becomes more of a sex crazed fiend, thinking about the subject throughout the section. This is rather irrational for the character of Billy Pilgrim. While Billy is in the future, his daughter judges him and accuses him of insanity. The people in his optometry clinic call him insane. He even states that he knows when he is going to die. These antics cause a rapid and constant change within Billy’s mental state and he has finally escaped from suffering and found hospice in a state of ignorance due to his insanity.

Quotes:

Quote One-“So Billy experiences death for a while. It is simply violet light and a hum. There isn’t anybody else there. Not even Billy Pilgrim is there.” (Vonnegut 182) This goes along with the general concept of insanity throughout the section. A purple hum is an interesting concept that almost makes one’s brain hum itself. And the fact that Billy was there and not there at the same time adds confusion on a new advanced level of confusing deep philosophy.

Quote Two-“That was I. That was me.” (Vonnegut, repeated quote) Vonnegut has recently started directly stating to the reader that he is a character within the story. This goes along with what he setup in the first chapter with him writing a story about his times during World War II. It also changes the perspective of the tale and creates a brief moment of confusion for the reader. Confusion seems to be Vonnegut’s goal in this section.

Quote Three-“And then they saw bearded Billy Pilgrim in his blue toga and silver shoes, with his hands in a muff. He looked at least sixty years old. Next to Billy was little Paul Lazzaro with a broken arm. He was fizzing with rabies. Next to Lazzaro was the poor old high school teacher, Edgar Derby, mournfully pregnant with patriotism and middle age and imaginary wisdom. And so on.” (Vonnegut 191) The strange descriptions of each character’s condition gives off the concept that each character is insane with conditions that wouldn’t necessarily make them insane, yet they do.

Styles/Devices:

Allusion-“Somebody behind him in the boxcar said, ‘Oz.’” (Vonnegut 189) The allusion to Oz is used to show how everyone has gone completely insane. In that story, Dorothy ends up dreaming her entire adventure to Oz, which gives the entire event a surreal and dreamlike quality. It can also apply to the imagery of Billy being a scarecrow in the barbed wire. He was acting clueless, like he “DIDN’T HAVE A BRAIN”. Oooooh spoopy reference.

Foreshadowing-“Dear Margaret – We are leaving for Dresden today. Don’t worry. It will never be bombed…” (Vonnegut 188) This foreshadowing was most likely a wink to the reader that things will get better by getting worse. Billy will be freed from his captivity because of the firebombing, and his freedom from the Tralfamadorians will most likely be simultaneous with the bombing.

Parallelism in Story Structure-Billy has his hands in a muff and the mysterious objects in his muff make his hands very hot. Before this time travel to the prison camp he was sleeping in an electric blanket that was on the highest possible heat. This makes the events connected and almost goes along with the Tralfamadorian concept that all time happens at once, which would make sense as to why he was hot in both scenarios.

Simile-“Billy closed it, took a hand from his muff, touched a stove. It was as cold as ice.” (Vonnegut 184) The use of such a stereotypical simile to describe a stove was probably Vonnegut mocking the various writers who love to use similes to describe everything with similes.

“The Blue Fairy Godmother”-This is a name used to describe one of the Englishmen at the English prison camp. He is only known by this name because he played the Fairy Godmother in the play of Cinderella that was put on in the camp. The Blue Fairy Godmother is not a benevolent character and in a way, one of the antagonists. The use of this name for the character and the character having a magical element and appearance gives the idea that not even a magical force is necessarily good within this torment for Billy. Everything is flying this way and that, therefore, insanity.

Imagery:

The imagery used on page 158 is to describe Billy as a scarecrow when he is trapped in barbed wire in the English prison camp. Instead of describing his behavior as drunk or disoriented, he is only presented as a scarecrow when one of the guards helps him get out of the barbed wire. This imagery may be to show how he is seen as an instrument or implement of sorts whilst in the camp. Eventually the prisoners are shipped to Dresden for labor; this coincides with the concept of Billy only being there for the Germans’ benefit.

Personal Response:

I felt rather disturbed by this section and how perverse the tone became. Vonnegut is clearly going for something here, and including himself as part of the story along with Billy’s sexual antics made me feels as if I were going insane. Nothing seemed to make much sense, it was as if the entire section was the mind of an insane nymphophiliac. I hope that this tone does not dominate the rest of the book, for I will be rather disappointed in Billy’s behavior…yeah…

Zach is Now 50% Dead on the Inside

This blog is death. It is pointless. It helps achieve a number or a grade. What does that even mean? Shouldn’t education be about learning and trying to understand the material instead of a constant struggle to obtain a certain number so you can win approval from the American public school system? Also, this post is late ’cause I almost died on Friday. That’s not sarcasm. I was literally on the verge of diabetic ketoacidosis. My stomach began to shut down and I was unconscious for seventeen hours. But I’m not trying to tell a sob story. Just thought you should know. Anyways, on with the show.

Summary:

The section was short so I will be brief. Billy was in the hospital with his fiancee and Rosewater. They talked about Kilgore Trout, the fictional version of Kurt Vonnegut. Billy time traveled to when he was a prisoner on Tralfamadore. The reader got a taste of what an average day in the zoo was like for Billy. He then time traveled again to his honeymoon where he was in the hotel room with his wife. She asked him how the war was. He had a thought: “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.” And that’s all folks. I told you it would be brief. Now move along, nothing to see here.

Symbol: 

The best symbol in this section was probably the geodesic dome that Billy was imprisoned in by the Tralfamadorians. He was in a zoo and it held a strong resemblance to an ant farm of sorts. I was reminded of Stephen King’s Under the Dome and of a small ant farm I had as a child. The theme of being poked at and played with by a larger powerful force makes the reader feel incredibly small and useless. It adds to the theme of hopelessness in this section because Billy is trapped no matter where he goes. There isn’t a place in the universe that he wants to be in.

Quotes:

1-” ‘That’s the attractive thing about war,’ said Rosewater. ‘Absolutely everybody gets a little something.’ ” (Vonnegut 141) This struck me as odd when compared to the theme because it contradicts the rest of the hopelessness that plagues the rest of the section. I believe that it is a little wink to the reader that lets him/her know that Billy will get himself out of the pickle he is in and make a life for himself.

2-“Escape was out of the question. The atmosphere outside the dome was cyanide, and Earth was 446,120,000,000,000,000 miles away.” (Vonnegut 142) Vonnegut loves to drag the point on and on and on. This takes the concept of hopelessness and no possible form of aid for Billy and blows it out of proportion. The number that Vonnegut uses adds a bit of humor too. It’s awfully large. Poor Billy.

3-“Now the first question came from the speaker on the television set: ‘Are you happy here?’ ‘About as happy as I was on Earth,’ said Billy Pilgrim, which was true.” (Vonnegut 145) This proves how Billy has become apathetic towards everything and has given up trying to do anything. He isn’t happy anywhere, so he has accepted that and tried to make happiness out of his despair…there’s a lot of weird oxymorons in this section.

Style/Devices:

1-Foreshadowing: “With regard to the whereabouts of Kilgore Trout: he actually lived in Ilium, Billy’s hometown, friendless and despised. Billy would meet him by and by.” (Vonnegut 141) Vonnegut could be foreshadowing to an event that takes place at a later time in the book, or he is just screwing with the reader again. Upon further research of Kilgore Trout in Vonnegut’s works, he does not appear to have a major role other than having his name mentioned…so…yep.

2-Repetition of a Phrase: “So it goes.” (Everywhere in the whole book) The phrase has changed from meaning. It no longer means: “That’s life” or whatever, it is a form of torment for the reader. It keeps popping up like one of those terrible scary face car commercial things. And despite how many times you hate it, and you want it to go away, you keep letting it come back to bite you in the butt because Vonnegut knows how to write.

3-Run-On Sentence: “He washed his cup and plate and knife and fork and spoon and saucepan, put them away.” (Vonnegut 144) The purpose of the run-on sentence was to show the constantly stressing schedule Billy lives in while in captivity at the zoo. It is the same thing every day and since there is no separation between each item he is cleaning, it makes everything appear as if it is blending together.

4-Extended Metaphor (Vonnegut 147): The metaphor is extended, so it is incredibly long and you don’t want to read all of it. But it is the Tralfamadorians’ way of trying to explain how humans see time. At first, the metaphor seems to make Billy just seem blind. But then, the metaphor gets incredibly worse and the entire scenario becomes so ridiculous and over dramatic that it may cause a slight psychological chip in Billy’s brain due to the fact that he has to hear it every day for six months.

5-Anecdote: “One result of this act would be the birth of Robert Pilgrim, who would become a problem in high school, but who would then straighten out as a member of the famous Green Berets.” (Vonnegut 150-151) This anecdote also goes in theme with Rosewater’s line about nice things coming out of the war. It contradicts the feeling of hopelessness and gives an underlying theme throughout the chapter that all bad things have great endings.

Theme:

The theme of this section appears to be hopelessness. Billy is trapped in the hospital room at the beginning of the section and his behavior towards everything becomes apathetic. Then he switches to being trapped under the dome on Tralfamadore and he is still apathetic towards life so he begins to develop a slight sense of sarcasm and wit. When things that tend to contradict themselves or that make other people seem stupid he starts to reply with “Um.” This shows how he isn’t trying to help them, he just does nothing but look at their despair and he mentally sighs, because there is no hope for anything.

Personal Response:

This section came off as rather humorous for me than the other sections because of Billy’s sarcasm. Vonnegut as the narrator has had sarcasm throughout the book, but now that Billy is developing some sarcasm, it’s almost like the two are battling each other without knowing it. Or perhaps Vonnegut knows it but Billy doesn’t. It’s a one sided two way battle….what?

Mildly Late Blog Post…(Yay…?)

Summary:

This was a mildly short section so I’ll attempt to be brief but attempts usually end in failure because that’s life and where’s the fun in things if you succeed all the time…well that was possibly the most depressing yet somehow philosophical thing I’ve ever said. We last found our hero within the clutches of imprisonment of Tralfamadorians. And that’s where he still is. He gets only one book from the Tralfamadorians because they only have one physical copy of an English book because they can just absorb everything or something. Then they go through time again and Billy is thrown back to his childhood where he visits a cavern and the Grand Canyon, from this point he is thrown back ahead from this time to the dreadful prisoner camp in World War II. In this section of time he visits four Englishmen who have been prisoners with the Germans for the longest time. Whoaaaaa whoa. For the longest time. Yeah anyway…he eats food with them and his comically small fur coat catches on fire and he starts laughing during an all male production of Cinderella so he’s put into the prison hospital for the night because his laughter was the equivalent of Alexis Adams’ laughter and that was too much for “zee” Germans to handle. From here he goes back to the future and is now in a psych ward at a hospital because he feels like life is worthless and like he is going insane. He has a roommate obsessed with science fiction books and he is introduced to the genre and it becomes one of the only things he still finds fascinating in life. That’s about it for this section.

Theme:

The theme of this section seemed to be the blending of time all together. While in captivity, the reader and Billy both start to understand how the Tralfamadorians view life. Everything is viewed at once so the parts of time that Billy starts to flash through are blending together as well. The style and word choice, the metaphors, everything is slowly melting into one another and it is harder to determine whether or not things are a flashback.

Symbol:

An important symbol within this section would be Billy’s father’s radium dial watch. It is briefly described to the reader during a time flashback thing when Billy is in a cavern. The cavern lights are turned off and Billy experiences complete and utter darkness for the first time in his life. He feels that he could be either dead or alive and the watch’s dial is described to give off a ghostly shape in the darkness. This is symbolic of how things are blending together and time itself is becoming merely a concept or theory. Ghosts are a popular debate in the scientific and religious world as to whether or not they exist. There’s strong proof on each side. Billy’s perception of time as a ghost like substance only shows that he is beginning to view things the way Tralfamadorians do, and time becomes just about as common as ghosts are. They’re there, and then they aren’t.

Quotes:

Wow, I have the most massive headache and it just came out of nowhere…that’s irrelevant but I thought you’d like to know such information since you care so much about me…(*flips hair*) Here are the three “fascinating” quotes I found.

“So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help.” (Vonnegut, 128): I felt this quote was relevant due to the fact that it describes the book as a whole. Vonnegut uses the genre of science fiction as a method to tell a coming-of-age story. It is almost a wink to the reader from the narrator and the characters themselves that shows that everything could possibly be fabricated. And it could be a book within a book within a book and so on.

“She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn’t really like life at all.” (Vonnegut, 130): I felt that this had to do with self pity and the idea that life is still important to Billy despite the fact that it isn’t at all. It creates a little paradox in itself because if Billy really didn’t like life, he wouldn’t care how other people felt because people are a part of life.

“ ‘My mother is dead,’ said Rosewater. So it goes.” (Vonnegut, 131): The constant repetition of “So it goes.” throughout the book shows that life moves on. But in a broader span of things, each part of life can be connected to another through this phrase. This phrase is used to describe things, regardless of the time period. This would mean that to Billy, when things are going, time isn’t and life itself is just moving and being.

Rhetorical Devices:

Personification: “Rosewater’s bedsprings talked a lot about that.” (Vonnegut, 130) This has deep meaning to explain how lonely Billy feels while he is in the mental ward. He becomes good friends with Rosewater, but he still feels lonely because Rosewater isn’t always there for him or he won’t always be there. It is this fact that makes it appear as if Billy is trying to find friends in nonliving things, like the science fiction books, or the bedsprings that are “talking” to him.

Style/Word Choice (Vonnegut 112-113): The paragraph that these two pages contain describes a trip to the Grand Canyon that Billy took as a child. The word choice, however is very peculiar. Everything seems almost distant and foreign and space-like. This is mainly due to the fact that before this instance of memory, Billy was still on the Tralfamadorian ship traveling through space. And the fact that space-like terminology is now filling the flashbacks, it means everything is blending together for Billy.

Anecdote: “ This volunteer was Edgar Derby, the high school teacher who would be shot to death in Dresden. So it goes.” (Vonnegut, 125) Vonnegut loves to throw in an anecdote that is either incredibly humorous, or incredibly depressing, or somehow both. This anecdote I found to be depressing. It is a pressing fact that Edgar Derby will die, yet Vonnegut keeps building his character and mentioning him more and more. It’s as if Vonnegut is trying to expose the reader to the torture Billy must go through by jumping through time. He knows what will happen in the future and it kills him to see and care about people he knows will die.

Extended Metaphor: “The giraffes accepted Billy as one of their own, as a harmless creature as preposterously specialized as themselves.” (Vonnegut, 126) There is a fascinating dream Billy has about being a giraffe and eating a pear off a tree. The whole dream of itself is a metaphor most likely for how Billy feels out of place and alone in the prison. These giraffes could represent the four Englishmen who treated him with kindness and compassion but then things take a slightly odd turn with velvet doorknob descriptions in the dream…yes…that’s exactly how it sounds.

Metaphor: “And on and on it went – that duet between the dumb, praying lady and the big, hollow man who was so full of loving echoes.” (Vonnegut, 132) The comparison of Rosewater to a “big, hollow man” who echoes things like a cave may be used to show that the memory of discomfort is just the same as the memory of discomfort Billy felt in the cavern while he was in darkness. He felt lost and he didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. Now that Billy is clinically depressed and going insane, these same feelings are reemerging.

Personal Response:

This section prompted a larger level of thinking for me. I looked at what Vonnegut was doing in between sections and throughout the chapter and I noticed that he is making everything slowly tie together. The story is told in fragments, yet it somehow all flows like it is meant to be told that way. It wasn’t a slow section and the book is picking up more and more speed. I look forward to what lies ahead in the following chapters, but I have a feeling things will end on a slightly neutral or downward note for Billy Pilgrim, since that’s how he seems to live his life. And since Vonnegut doesn’t like living up to the natural conformity of society, I highly doubt Billy will go through a life changing experience that alters his view on life.