Summary
There isn’t any particular relationship
between the messages. . . . There is no beginning, no middle, no
end, no suspense, no moral. . . .
See Important Quotations Explained
In his zoo enclosure, Billy reads the novel Valley
of the Dolls, the only earthling book available. He learns
that Tralfamadorian books are composed of short telegram-like clumps
of symbols separated by stars. Billy skips back to two childhood
scenes during a family tour of the American West, then to the prison
camp in Germany. After the prisoners are showered and their clothes
are deloused, their names are entered in a ledger, and they are
officially alive again.
The Americans are housed with a group of British officers
who have accidentally received extra provisions. The Brits welcome
the Americans with a cheerful banquet but quickly become disgusted with
the sorry state of the enlisted men. During a performance of Cinderella, Billy
laughs uncontrollably and is taken to the camp’s “hospital.” He
is drugged and wakes up in 1948, in the mental
ward of a veterans’ hospital in New York.
Billy has committed himself to the mental ward in his
last year of optometry school. In the aftermath of war, he finds
life meaningless. In the bed next to him lies an ex-captain named
Eliot Rosewater. Eliot introduces Billy to the clever but poorly
written science-fiction novels of a writer named Kilgore Trout.
Billy’s mother visits him, and he covers his head with a blanket.
Back in Germany, Edgar Derby keeps watch over
Billy’s sickbed. Billy remembers Derby’s death by firing squad,
which happens in the near future. Billy travels back to the veterans’ hospital.
His -fiancée, Valencia Merble, is visiting. They discuss Kilgore
Trout with Rosewater.
Billy time-travels to his geodesic dome in the zoo on
Tralfamadore, outfitted with Sears Roebuck furniture and appliances.
The Tralfamadorians tell Billy that there are actually seven sexes
among humans, all of which are necessary for reproduction. Since
five of these sexes are active only in the fourth dimension, Billy
cannot perceive them. When Billy praises the peacefulness of Tralfamadore, the
aliens inform him that Tralfamadorians are at war sometimes and
at peace at others. They add that they know how the universe will
end: one of their pilots will accidentally blow it up. It always happens
the same way and that is how the moment is structured. They state
that war cannot be prevented on Tralfamadore any more than it can
on Earth.
Billy skips back to his wedding night with
Valencia in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. After they make love, Valencia
asks Billy about the war. He gets up and goes to the bathroom and
finds himself back in his hospital bed in the prison camp. Billy
wanders to the latrine, where the American soldiers are violently
sick. One of them is Kurt Vonnegut.
