Chapter 4 Summary

Billy cannot sleep on the night of his daughter’s wedding. He is aware that Tralfamadorians are going to abduct him to Tralfamadore in a flying saucer. Since he has time-traveled earlier to Tralfamadore, he knows what will befall him. Billy is restless and walks up to his daughter’s room, which he sees is empty by the light of the moon. He receives a call from a drunk man who has dialed a wrong number. He comes downstairs and watches an old war documentary, in backward and forward as he is again unstuck in time. While the documentary on World War II is playing in reverse, in Billy’s mind, Hitler becomes a baby. Also, in his mind, humankind starts working hard to create and nurture Adam and Eve.

As the arrival time of the Tralfamadorians draws to a close, Billy goes to the backyard. Post his capture, the aliens communicate with Billy telepathically. Billy asks the Tralfamadorians—“Why me?” The Tralfamadorians consider this question very unintelligent, not expecting someone from Earth to ask such a question. They tell him that there is no high philosophy or reason behind his capture and that “this moment simply is.” He is kept in a chamber full of things from Earth that the Tralfamadorians later use to create a habitat in the zoo where Billy will be kept. Billy is then anesthetized and he again ends up time-traveling to 1944 in the train carrying the prisoners of war.

The prisoners take turns in the train to sleep. Billy is not allowed to sleep near any of them because he yells while sleeping. He ends up sleeping while standing. People start dying in the train by the ninth day. Roland Weary, who is in another compartment, dies of gangrene. Before his death, Weary lets everyone know that Billy is the reason behind his death. Paul Lazzaro, a car thief from Illinois with criminal intentions, promises to avenge Weary’s death by killing Billy.

The train reaches its destination on the tenth day. The prisoners get off the train, their clothes are taken to delouse and are given a mass shower with hot water. The guards ridicule Billy’s frailness. The narrator describes that the best body amongst the prisoners is of Edgar Derby, a forty-four-year-old teacher from Indianapolis. Paul Lazzaro apparently has the worst body. In the mass shower, Billy gets unstuck in time quite a few times. He travels to his infancy when his mother had given him a bath. Then he travels to his middle-age playing golf. Finally, he ends up again in the flying saucer. Billy is informed by a Tralfamadorian that the concept of time on Tralfamadore is different from that on earth. According to the aliens, time “does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.” When Billy asks whether the Tralfamadorians believe in free will, the Tralfamadorian tells Billy that the concept of free will only exists on Earth and nowhere else in the universe.

Chapter 4 Analysis

In this chapter, the key concept of the novel is exposed. The Tralfamadorians do not believe in the concept of linear time. Their emphasis is more on destiny and believe that whatever happens is meant to be and there is no escape from that. When Billy is abducted, he asks a vital question regarding why he is chosen to be abducted. The aliens consider it to be an “Earthling” question and explain that “this moment simply is.” At the end of the chapter, they explain to Billy that the concept of free will only exists on Earth and not on any other planet. This might also be Billy’s own concept in justifying the despair, destruction, and purpose of a war: that it is fated and is beyond anyone’s control.

While Billy’s time-shifts through moments, the author stresses on this philosophy further. Billy is aware of the time and moment of his death beforehand because of his ability to get unstuck in time. This showcases the inevitability of fate. Further, the facts that Roland Weary dies suddenly suffering from gangrene, blaming Billy for his death due to his delusional self, Paul Lazzaro swearing to avenge Weary’s death for no apparent reason but due to criminal tendencies, and Billy’s survival through the hardships of the war and eventual death years later attest to the concept of fate and its inescapable nature.

The chapter also introduces the character of Edgar Derby, a high-school teacher from Illinois. His death along with Billy’s assassination in the constant backdrop of war symbolizes the irrationality of human justice.

Vonnegut did not want to make any decisive comment on fate in the novel, although it tends to hint more at its inevitability. While waiting for the Tralfamadorians, Billy sits and watches the war documentary backward that gives a different perspective and meaning altogether. The meaning derived is transformational and changes from war to peace. This is a challenge to the nonlinear belief of the Tralfamadorians and establishes the necessity of chronology and the existence of a cause-effect relationship. When Billy watches the documentary in reverse, the meaning derived is completely different. Hence, the idea that a moment is permanent and doesn’t change in whatever way it is perceived becomes untrue.