Slaughterhouse-5 Rewrite


"So it goes." This quote directly describes the view this book and its author have on life. It reiterates that no matter what, memory and time will continue to go on forever. I believe that Kurt Vonnegut looks beyond reality and displays his thoughts and ideas through a fiction story. I think that Kurt Vonnegut explains that Death isn't that important, because Vonnegut's view on time is that it is the fourth dimension and that people will live on forever even if physically they are gone because they will continue to be alive in memories and time.

One example of how Vonnegut sees time as the fourth dimension is that Billy dies not at the end of the book, but about two thirds of the way through. Since Billy is the main character, a regular story would have ended when he died, but Vonnegut did this specifically to explain how time is indeed the fourth dimension and that even though physically he is dead, he is still alive in memories and time. Vonnegut uses Billy to portray his thoughts and he does it perfectly showing that even though other characters die in the book, they are still a part of the story because time is used as the fourth dimension.

"One hour later she was dead. So it goes." This quote is referring to when Billy's wife pulls up to the hospital unconscious and then dies an hour later from carbon monoxide poisoning. This is significant to the story because it shows how it is different from a regular story. If this were normal, Billy would be extremely sad when his wife died, but this is not a regular story because Billy does not grieve because he knows that he will always be able to be with her in memories and time. Since Billy continually visits Tralfamadore, he starts to see that there is no point in missing someone so much because he can always be with them in memories and time, which he learns from his time on Tralfamadore. Vonnegut shows this by explaining that Billy's friends have died but he still relives memories with them that were significant to their lives, like being in the war. So at the end Billy realizes that physically, his wife's body is dead but Vonnegut shows that she continues to exist in the past, present, and future in time and memories.

"Because this moment simply is." This quote occurs on Billy's first encounter with the Tralfamadorians and Billy has just asked why HE was chosen and the Tralfamadorians retort why US, why ANYTHING, because this moment simply IS. Then they continue to explain how beings are stuck in time are just like bugs stuck in amber. That they simply exist there and there is nothing to change. This shows Kurt Vonnegut's point because it shows how there isn't necessarily meaning for everything or anything, just that everything simply IS. This is significant because it helps Vonnegut display Billy as not really a human, but a metaphor for time. And on Billy's first visit, he starts to look beyond reality and actuality, that there are physical dimensions, and also memory and time.