Chapter 8 Summary

Howard W. Campbell, Jr., the crooked American writer and playwright, propagating for the Nazi party, visits Slaughterhouse-Five to meet the American prisoners and coax them to join the German military unit named Free American Corps that he is heading. He is recruiting to make the Americans fight against the Russians. He promises food and repatriation after the war in exchange. He delivers a speech where he mentions that the Americans must join hands with the Germans to fight Communism, which the Americans have to do eventually. However, the promise of food and repatriation does not succeed in winning over the American prisoners. Rather, Edgar Derby denounces Campbell in his finest moment and says that he is as lowly as a “a blood-filled tick.” Derby passionately talks about the bond of brotherhood that the Americans and the Russians share against German Nazism. He also comments on how the Americans perceive freedom and justice. Just then, air raid sirens go off, putting an end to their argument. They all take refuge in the underground meat locker of Slaughterhouse-Five. It is a false alarm, the narrator informs. However, the next day, the city of Dresden would be completely destroyed from the Allied bombing, killing more than nearly 130,000 people.

Billy gives a serious thought about his reaction to singing and concludes that his strong reaction must be related to the bombing in Dresden. He remembers that on the night of the bombing, the German guards had gone home, except for four of them, who had stayed back with the Americans. They all took refuge in the meat locker of the slaughterhouse while the city was being bombed. The next day, at noon, when they finally stepped out, they found Dresden completely destroyed and looking like the city of the dead. The four Germans were traumatized and shaken and, according to Billy, they looked like “a silent film of a barbershop quartet.”

Billy time-travels again to Tralfamadore. Montana is six months pregnant with Billy’s child. They are both lying in bed in the zoo when Montana asks Billy to tell her a story. Billy narrates the horror he had witnessed in Dresden. He recounts how the city was reduced to debris, except for the slaughterhouse, and the look on the faces of the German guards, who wore expressions of horror witnessing the destruction. He describes the landscape after the bombing as “curve after curve on the face of the moon,” which they climbed in search of water and food. The American fighter planes that hovered in the air shot whoever survived. Luckily, the Americans were spared by sheer luck. The narrator informs the readers that “the idea was to hasten the end of the war.”

The Americans and the guards traveled through the city where they did not encounter a single living person. They reached an inn in the suburb of Dresden where a blind innkeeper provided them with food. The innkeeper inquired whether he may expect more refugees to which the guards informed him of the wretched condition of the lifeless city. The Americans were shown the stables to sleep in while the guards were given rooms.

Chapter 8 Analysis

This chapter marks an important association between Billy’s past and his present. Readers finally can establish the correlation between Billy’s time-shifts and his life at the present as a middle-aged, wealthy man. The time associations made by Billy provide a definite structure to the novel that otherwise do not follow a linear narrative. His life as a middle-aged man begins to cross over with his time in the war. This chapter is crucial as Billy finally accepts his history of trauma that he has been keeping a secret for such a long time, even from himself. He finally comes to terms with reality after years of denial. The singing of the quartet in the anniversary party triggers Billy’s trauma regarding the Dresden massacre he had witnessed, memories of which he had shelved for such a long time. If we try to construct a linear narrative from the fragmented narrative of the novel, Billy often bursts into tears after this incident at the anniversary party that has already been mentioned in the previous chapters. Thereafter, Billy starts feeling “unstuck in time” and starts believing in the story of his abduction by the Tralfamadorians. He decides to spread the gospel of the Tralfamadorians on earth.

The singing of the barbershop quartet is cathartic. Billy has been a mute spectator of the tragedy that had befallen the city of Dresden that night, yet his experience of actual bombing is nothing more than heavy footsteps above the meat locker where the Americans and the four German guards were hiding. When Trout notices Billy’s emotional upheaval, he asks if Billy has seen moments of another time through a “time window,” to which Billy answers no. Valencia comments, “You looked as though you’d seen a ghost.” It is indeed so. The quartet reminds Billy of the four Germans and the image of four open-mouthed men, which for Billy signifies the tragedy of a massacre.

The idea of being “unstuck in time” is a metaphor for memories and can be related to the psychological occurrence of having flashbacks. Billy seems to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is almost unable to distinguish between reality and flashbacks. He re-experiences the traumatic moments of the war and experiences similar physiological symptoms that he felt during the time of the bombing. Hence, though his time-travels might be manifestations of his imagination, this is as real as it gets.