Chapter 6 Summary

As the sedative wears off, Billy wakes up in the prison camp at dawn. He feels a certain energy, like “animal magnetism,” radiating from somewhere near his bed. He discovers the source of the energy in the lining of his coat in the form of two small lumps but is telepathically communicated that if he tries to find out anything about it, it will not be able to work its miracles.

Billy wakes up again on the same day and finds himself with Lazzaro and Derby. It is the day on which the American soldiers are to be transported to Dresden. When the Englishman who has beaten Lazzaro up and has broken his arm stops by, Lazzaro promises to kill him after the war, and also tells Billy that he will avenge the death of Roland Weary by killing Billy. The readers get to know the level of Lazzaro’s toxicity when he casually mentions that he had once made a dog eat a steak filled with sharp metals and sadistically loved watching it die. He did this because the dog had bitten him. Billy, who already has visited multiple times the moments of his death, knows that Lazzaro will honor his silly promise made to Weary. He will record a cassette and keep it in a safe deposit box where he will mention: “I, Billy Pilgrim, will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth, 1976.”

Billy knows that by the time he will be assassinated, he will be a famous messianic figure who will gain popularity in his journey to spread the awareness of the inevitable nature of moments and time to the world. The narrative jumps to the day Billy is killed. He is delivering a lecture at a stadium in Chicago about the negligibility of death when he is shot by a sniper’s laser gun. Moments before his death, he says “Farewell, hello, farewell, hello,” predicting his own death. After he is shot, he sees the violent light of death and jumps back to the camp moments after Lazzaro promises to avenge the death of Roland Weary. Billy, Lazzaro, and Edgar Derby return to the British officers’ makeshift theatre and go to sleep.

The next day, the American prisoners are transferred to Dresden in Germany. Edgar Derby is elected the president of the American prisoners. The prisoners are transported to Dresden by train. It is the prettiest city that the Americans have ever witnessed as the city has not been bombed unlike the other cities in Germany. The prisoners experience some semblance of normalcy in the city as the city is functioning normally. However, as Billy is already aware of the future of the city, he ponders on how it will be completely reduced to rubble a month later, with its residents perishing. The Americans find themselves in a vacated stockyard, which is nothing more than a cement building equipped with bunk beds and a latrine. The name of the place is Schlachthof-funf, meaning “Slaughterhouse-Five.” The prisoners are asked to memorize the name.

Chapter 6 Analysis

Interestingly, the narrative technique divulges that the entire idea of inevitability of Billy’s fate might not be absolutely true. Instead of relying on his own voice, the narrator uses Billy’s narration of 1976, distancing himself from Billy’s perspective. The narrative voice is now the tape that Billy has recorded to let people know about world events and opens with the phrase: “Billy Pilgrim says…” The narrative shifts to reporting. After all, the book is like an earthling take on a Tralfamadorian tale that often departs from the scope of human perception and morality. The narration, therefore, loses its authoritative voice.

A graphic description of Paul Lazzaro’s gory, criminal tendency is illustrated through Lazzaro’s description of how he killed the dog who bit him. In this novel, the dog becomes a symbolic representation of loyalty and empathy and brings an otherworldly experience of kindness and companionship that fellow humans fail to provide to each other. The cruelty that Lazzaro unleashes on a harmless creature, who must have bitten him for self-preservation, underlines how human beings are capable of mindless horrors, which is what makes murder and massacre possible. The mention of dogs has been made quite a number of times in the novel: through Vonnegut’s own dog Sandy and Billy’s dog Spot.

In the prison camp, the author describes the coexistence of two kinds of war prisoners: the British soldiers and the American soldiers. The contrast that Vonnegut draws between the two sets of soldiers is stark and thought-provoking. The British soldiers are real soldiers, equipped with skills and ready to face a war, while the American soldiers are untrained—young Americans who have been deployed in the war. The British soldiers, although in prison for four years, are healthy and have never participated in the war. On the other hand, the American soldiers have witnessed the war and are sickly and wounded. The inevitability of fate is exposed in the fact that due to an official error, the British are to receive provisions which are apparently more than the provision reserved for the entire Europe. The Americans are subjected to life in the poorest condition. He establishes the fact that human spirit mirrors human condition: if human condition degrades, human spirit too degrades.

The purposelessness and unpredictability of war is highlighted from the predicament of the American soldiers in Dresden. Prior to reaching Dresden, the American soldiers were reassured that Dresden is a very safe city and, in fact, is one of the very few cities in Germany that has not been bombed and destroyed. The reason for the city’s survival is credited to the lack of military interest in the city. However, readers are already aware that that kind of security and prediction can’t be exercised in a war. Ironically, the city is bombed and is reduced to rubble a month later. The author taps into the use of irony in the name of the building where the American prisoners are housed. The eponymous Slaughterhouse-Five, although is a direct reference to a slaughterhouse, is the only building in Dresden that survives the onslaught of the Allied air bombing. However, the physical survival of the soldiers doesn’t ensure their psychological or emotional preservation. Later, these soldiers either live in a make-believe world or suffer from survivor’s guilt.