Chapter 10: Society and War

In chapter 10, I seemed to realize that many things are unpredictable. In Society, many people are unpredictable. Everyone always seems to have different thoughts and then change them. You never know what somebody is going to think or do next. Also, war is extremely unpredictable. One moment everything could be fine, and the next minute, there could be thousands of people gone in a blink of an eye!

Chapter 10: parallelism

While reading the last chapter, I found a great amount of parallelism. Parallelism is the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures. Vonnegut uses a lot of the same phrase. The phrase, "so it goes" was overused throughout the whole book. It makes the reader wonder if the things that happened throughout the story were true or not.

Chapter 9: Hunger in Africa

In chapter 9, Billy sees many things wrong in society. The problem is, he does not cry over it. As much as he doesn’t like what is going on, he seems to not be able to show any emotion over it. Living in America, we are spoiled when it comes to eating. As we know, there are many people in countries, like Africa that do not get the right amount of food. We all feel bad for them, but most people cannot seem to show much emotion on that fact.

Chapter 9: Irony

As I was readng chapter 9, I found an ironic piece. Irony is a discrepancy between appearance and reality. What I thought was ironic about this chapter was that Valencia had a terrible experience driving the car, but still lived. On the other hand, she ended up dying when the car was parked. "Poor Valencia was unconscious, overcome by carbon monoxide." (183) Vonnegut made her survive everything else, but then she died from the unexpected.

Chapter 8: Friendship

In chapter 8, I compared the chapter to friendship. Billy had convinced himself and his friends that he was okay, even when he obviously wasn’t. His friends caught onto it and realized that he was not okay. Real friends know your worst and best moods. Even when you act like you are fine, they know better to know that you are not okay.

Chapter 8: Characterization

Even in one of the last chapters, there is still characters being described. Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the personality, values, and quality of a character. In this chapter, Campbell is being introduced. "Campbell was an ordinary-looking man, but he was extravagantly customed in a uniform of his own design." (162) Vonnegut was introducing us to Campbell because he is going to be an important character in the rest of the book.

Chapter 7: Community Service

As I was reading chapter 7, I began to think about Billy’s works. He had many contributions on society, many not acknowledged. Not being recognized by many people, Billy still was trying to help others. He affected many lives. This reminded me of community service. Not many people acknowledge what you have done, but in your heart and in the service you have done for someone else, it is forever in your hearts.

Chapter 7: Parody

As I was reading chapter 7, I found myself rereading a couple of parodies. A parody is a work that makes fun of another work by irritating some aspect of its style. One of the parodies in this chapter is, "In my prison cell i sit, with my britches full of shit, and my balls are bouncing gently on the floor. And I see the bloody snag when she bit me in the bag." (155) This was to make fun of poems that are written and rhyming songs. It was a way to make a funny joke about things that have been written.

Chapter 6: Jesus

Chapter 6 reminded me a lot of Jesus and his resurrection. I compared this chapter to His resurrection because Billy talks about dying and coming back in a couple of days. Jesus was killed on a Friday and resurrected on that Sunday.

Chapter 6: Simile

In chapter 6, there are many comparisons made. One type of comaprison is a smilie. A simile is a figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things with the use of like or as. As Vonnegut says, "They were sharp as razor blades." (139) Vonnegut was explaining the sharpness of an object and compared it to razor blades.

Chapter 5: Kids with Bribes

While reading chapter 5, I started to compare it to how kids only do things if they are going to get something out of it in the long run. On page 101, it talks about how people are going to have to make up new lies to keep things interesting or else people aren’t going to want to keep doing things. This made me think of young children. For instance, if a child was told to clean their room, they would not want to do that. On the other hand, if they were offered to get ice cream after they cleaned, they would just do it for the ice cream. If there is a good bribe involved, people will always do what they are told.

Chapter 2: Point of View

As I was reading chapter 2, I noticed that the narrators point of view is. A point of view is the vantage point from which the writer tells the story. Throughout this chapter, Vonnegut uses the phrases, "he says" and "so it goes." This makes the reader think. How are we supposed to know if the stories are the truth if the writer is not even sure about what is being said?

Chapter 5: Imagery

As I was reading chapter 5, I found a lot of good imagery. Imagery is the use of sensory language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience. Vonnegut uses very good imagery throughout the book, but I seemed to find a lot more in this specific chapter! As it says, " There were more starving Russians with faces like radium dials." (91) As I read this sentence, I was able to paint a picture in my head of what was going on at that moment.

Chapter 4: America

In chapter 4, I realized that the people living in Tralfamadore do not have any free will. It made me think of how America is a free country. I began to think about how things would be here in America if we did not have free will. It made me realize how lucky we are to have the freedom and choice to do whatever our heart wants us to do. It must have been terrible to be living in a place where you could not do what your heart desired.

Chapter 4: Style

The style of the book is pretty much a simple form of writing. A books style in the distincitve way in which a writer used language: a writer's distinctive use of diction, tone, and syntax. Throughout this chapter, i realized how many simple sentences were placed in a row. Vonnegut seemed to make it work, but some authors cannot pull off the simple sentence form throughout a book. Also, the words Vonnegut uses arent the highest form of vocabulary, but it seems to flow throughout the book!

Chapter 3: Serenity Prayer

As I was reading chapter 3, I began to compare how Billy felt weak to the Serenity prayer. The prayer reads, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen. “ I feel that Billy was unable to change the way he felt, therefore all he did was cry about it. That made feel stronger. After he had thought, he realized that he could not change things, and he had accepted it. 

Chapter 3:Anecdote

In chapter 3, I noticed that there was an anecdote. An anecdote is a brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often to characterize an individual. "Their commander was a middle-aged corporal-red-eyed, scrawny, tough as dried beef, sick of war." (53) This shows how their commander was not a very nice, encouraging man. The narrator gave us a background on him so we are able to relate.

Chapter 2:Book Covers

As I was reading through chapter 2, I realized that this chapter can relate to the back cover of a book. While reading the back cover of a book, you are able to see what is going to be happening. It portrays bits and pieces of what the book is about. This chapter seemed to give hints and ideas about what is going to happen throughout this book.