Slaughterhouse Five Chapter 1
Kayla Martin
Chapter 1 takes place in Vonnegut's home, and a cab, and at O' Hare's house. The time is 1967. The narrator is Vonnegut himself. I believe he chose to open the book from his perspective because he wanted to explain and discuss the book with us personally. To me, Vonnegut writes using descriptive and narrative writing styles, because she describes events in great detail but he also narrates the events.
Vonnegut use syntax greatly throughout the novel. He uses a lot of asyndeton, and polysyndeton, and parataxis in his writing because he can add lots of details with these types. His tone is serious and anxious. When he talks about the war he seems anxious to me and then he sounds serious talking about the Tralfamadorians and their views. Vonnegut argues about time, that everything is more like one continuous moment instead of all in different moments. He also argues about free will and whether or not we can choose our own destiny.
Hard times faced during the war, what was learned from the Tralfamadorians, people thinking he is going crazy, we are to expect this all from the book. Vonnegut is showing us that death, in a way, means nothing with the phrase, "So it goes." We are going to see a lot of things against the war. Vonnegut is going to argue about the importance of time and how free will doesn't exist.
Vonnegut uses the phrase "So it goes" to explain when someone dies. It is a Tralfamadorian phrase because they say just because someone has died doesn't mean they are completely dead because they are still very much alive in a different moment. Time is another widely used motif in the novel. Everything that happens in the novel seems to run together like it is all one continuous event rather than individual moments because Billy is "unstuck from time".