CHAPTER 5:
As I was been reading Slaughterhouse-Five this morning, I noticed that I don't remember the original time period the book began in. Vonnegut has had the character Billy Pilgrim travel back and forward in times so much throughout the novel, that's I've lost track of the timeline of Billy's life. In most novels, events happen in sequential order with the occasional flashbacks. Vonnegut breaks this norm and has the book switching time periods unpredictably. Sequential order seems to become chaotic order. Vonnegut does this intentionally to help convey an important theme to his readers.
Throughout the novel Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians to express that the past, present, and future occur simultaneously. They tell Billy that, "What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time." (page 88) Another time, while Billy is on display in their zoo, they tell him, "...Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones." (page117) The Tralfamadorians have continuously made remarks like this in the previous chapters. Vonnegut is using them to express the theme: The good times of life are worth remembering, for the bad can do nothing but tear you down.
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