As I pondered this question throughout my reading, I have come to the conclusion that the “telegraphic schizophrenic manner” in which the story was structured proved to be advantageous. Though difficult in the beginning to get a grasp on the different settings, I became accustomed to the every changing shift in time and space. I found it interesting to read this structure rather than see it in a film. The sporadic timeline in my opinion presents an effective method of representing Billy’s inability to live a normal life especially after experiencing warfare. The disjointed collage of Billy Pilgrim’s life gets translated directly to the disjointed collage of the narrative. Life today has no logical order, we can not for see our future as the
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What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.” Life is made of moments that occur chronologically, however there is beauty in disorder and the unknowing of where you will be tomorrow. In my opinion this structure builds life into the novel and takes different parts of Billy’s life and puts them together to show how similar his life was but at different points. If it was told chronologically I believe it would have the same depth that it did and we as the reader wouldn't have been as involved in the novel. Billy's experiences as a prisoner of war are told in more or less chronological order, but these events are continually interrupted by Billy's travels to various other times in his life, both past and future. In this way, the novel's structure highlights both the centrality of Billy's war experiences to his life, as well as the profound dislocation and alienation he feels after the war. Slaughterhouse-Five is different from all other stories we have read in that it takes time and settings and combats what is normal. We as the reader are taken on a journey with Billy and it is within that journey that we learn not only about Billy but ourselves and how we are able to relate with his experiences, whether it be
What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.” Life is made of moments that occur chronologically, however there is beauty in disorder and the unknowing of where you will be tomorrow. In my opinion this structure builds life into the novel and takes different parts of Billy’s life and puts them together to show how similar his life was but at different points. If it was told chronologically I believe it would have the same depth that it did and we as the reader wouldn't have been as involved in the novel. Billy's experiences as a prisoner of war are told in more or less chronological order, but these events are continually interrupted by Billy's travels to various other times in his life, both past and future. In this way, the novel's structure highlights both the centrality of Billy's war experiences to his life, as well as the profound dislocation and alienation he feels after the war. Slaughterhouse-Five is different from all other stories we have read in that it takes time and settings and combats what is normal. We as the reader are taken on a journey with Billy and it is within that journey that we learn not only about Billy but ourselves and how we are able to relate with his experiences, whether it be