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| Photo Credit: http://www.survivingcollege.com |
Although Howard W.
Campbell, Jr., is a fictional character, "The Free American Corps"
was very real. Look it up.
What do you make of Derby's stance against Campbell? What do you make of the fact that he's the only one to make that stand?
Why does Billy's daughter want to kill Kilgore Trout?
Kilgore Trout created the idea of burning jellied gasoline. What is this substance referred to as today? Where was it used extensively? Why is it important that robots created and used it in the book?
Another great description: "She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies." Made me chuckle.
Why do you think Billy reacts so adversely to the "old gang of mine" song?
Has anyone ever tried the mirror/dog trick? I wonder if it works...
Odd thing to say about one's son: "Billy liked him, but didn't know him very well." How do you think this came to be?
Odd that after the bombing of Dresden, one of Billy's strongest memories is that the guards reminded him of a barbershop quartet...
Bombing of Dresden: 2/13/45. Why does this date sound familiar?
So Billy fathered a child with Montana Wildhack. He also goes through the entire pregnancy with her while in the Tralfamadorian zoo. As far as characterization goes, what does this tell us about Billy?
What a bizarre scene...Billy and the Americans come out of the slaughterhouse to see Dresden utterly destroyed...they make their way through the destruction, and just outside of town they see an inn open for business. Why do you think Vonnegut included this seemingly unlikely scene?
What do you make of Derby's stance against Campbell? What do you make of the fact that he's the only one to make that stand?
Why does Billy's daughter want to kill Kilgore Trout?
Kilgore Trout created the idea of burning jellied gasoline. What is this substance referred to as today? Where was it used extensively? Why is it important that robots created and used it in the book?
Another great description: "She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies." Made me chuckle.
Why do you think Billy reacts so adversely to the "old gang of mine" song?
Has anyone ever tried the mirror/dog trick? I wonder if it works...
Odd thing to say about one's son: "Billy liked him, but didn't know him very well." How do you think this came to be?
Odd that after the bombing of Dresden, one of Billy's strongest memories is that the guards reminded him of a barbershop quartet...
Bombing of Dresden: 2/13/45. Why does this date sound familiar?
So Billy fathered a child with Montana Wildhack. He also goes through the entire pregnancy with her while in the Tralfamadorian zoo. As far as characterization goes, what does this tell us about Billy?
What a bizarre scene...Billy and the Americans come out of the slaughterhouse to see Dresden utterly destroyed...they make their way through the destruction, and just outside of town they see an inn open for business. Why do you think Vonnegut included this seemingly unlikely scene?
88 comments:
Billy’s daughter wants to kill Trout because she believes he is the for her father’s mental downslide. So many of Trout’s novels coincide with Billy’s ‘delusions’; the story about the people put in an alien zoo being the most notable. She thinks that when her father was injured in the crash he adopted this story as his own. Trout also talks about time travel, and Barbra can only see the delusions as Trout’s fault. Perhaps she blames Trout because there is no one else to blame, and she can’t understand what is happening inside her father’s head without blaming someone outside of her family.
Many of Trout's novels coincide with Billy's delusions he has experienced over the years. Billy's daughter mentioned that she wants to kill Trout because she believes he is the cause for Billy's mental problems. After the plane crash, she believes Billy adopted those stories as his own even though the original cause of his madness was most likely PTSD from the war. People have a tendency to blame others when they can't find out the cause of something.
Campbell was an American who became a Nazi. He was told that he was lower than a snake. He was called this because snakes couldn't help being snakes, but he could help being what he was. Snakes are considered in most works of fiction to be very deceptive. This is how they are by nature. While it certainly isn't a good thing, you can't blame them for having that personality; however, Campbell willingly chose to be a Nazi. I am curious as to why he chose that role for himself.
Billy was greatly disturbed when the barbershop quartet sang the "old gang of mine" song mainly because he subconsciously knew that the barbershop quartet was going to die soon. As Billy recovers after the song, he thinks to himself that, "Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was." Even though Billy had not seen the airplane crash in the future yet, in the future Billy did nothing to stop the crash. The overwhelming sadness and guilt from that time reached Billy when the barbershop quartet was alive and singing about goodbyes. Also, when the quartet sings again, Billy is overcome with emotions and he realizes that his emotions are associated with the four men and not what they are singing. Billy is clearly upset that he did not change the outcome of the airplane crash. I think Vonnegut was trying to make up for Billy's despicable inaction before the plane crash in the previous chapter by displaying Billy's strong emotional reaction to the barbershop quartet while they were still alive.
I think Derby's stance against Campbell was a surprise in the story. Vonnegut makes a point that war scares and shakes everyone so terribly, that he or she becomes characterless. There are barely any characters in Slaughterhouse-5. "All the real soldiers are dead." This quote reiterates that there are no powerful characters in this book. And then there is Derby. The old, "wise", high school teacher in WWII. I think he takes this stance because he wants to be respected and looked up to. Maybe Vonnegut just wants one of his characters to have some actual drive so we readers don't go mad.
The significance of the date of the bombing of Dresden (2/13/45) is that Billy also dies on the thirteenth of February years later. Vonnegut must have wanted to show how significant of an event the bombing of Dresden was in Billy's life. Also curious about Billy's experience in Dresden is the guards reminding him of a barbershop quartet. I find this interesting because if I remember correctly before the plane crashed there was a quartet singing. These are both occasions where Billy could have died and they have similarities. I don't know the significance of these connections, I'm just pointing out that they are there.
The Jellied gasoline is referring to napalm, which was used extensively in the Vietnam war because it burned a large amount of area and destroyed forests quickly. The fact that robots used it in the book made it justifiable. The robots were programmed to do this and didn’t care if they hurt people. This makes it seem like the armies that used napalm during Vietnam were just robots. It made them seem like bad people because they didn’t care like the robots didn’t. It makes me wonder if Billy’s son was a robot during the Vietnam war. Billy says he doesn’t know his son to well because his whole life he has been focusing on other time periods instead of just seeing the present. He never really got to know anyone on a super personal level. I also found it funny when Billy was in the bathroom with his son. I liked thatch said he was with a guitar that he recently purchased but wouldn’t learn to play. I feel like that happens a lot with teens, they buy something because its cool but then never use it.
I agree with the others who have said that Billy’s daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she needs someone to blame. She could blame her father, but that wouldn’t be very fair. It’s not his fault his brain is going haywire. Although it’s not necessarily fair to blame Trout either...But people always blame others unfairly. She made the connection between his stories and Billy’s stories and it makes more sense to her to blame Trout for placing the ideas in his head.
Next time I see my dog I’m definitely going to test the mirror trick and update you.
Regarding the fact that Billy lacks knowledge about his own child, I feel that Billy is always in his own little imaginary world and has blocked many people out. He's always thinking of HIS past, present, and future, and he doesn't seem to think about a lot of other people's. Also, the date of the Dresden bombing is the day Billy is planned to die. As far as the "child" Billy had with Montana Wildhack, I think this says that Billy may look up to the higher-class of society. He might long to have the type of rich lifestyle that Montana has, since she is an actress.
I think that Billy's daughter doesn't like Kilgore trout because Billy reads a lot of his books. I think that she assumes Kilgore Trout put these science-fictional ideas in Billy's head, which is actually a pretty smart assumption now that I think about it. It would make sense that Billy's crazy ideas come from him because Trout was a fictional version of the author Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon wrote about issues such as war, sex, and people being isolated because they were different. Kurt Vonnegut actually called him "One of the best writers in America," so it makes sense that he would be a part of his book.
I also agree with what the others have said about Billy's daughter blaming Trout for Billy's fantasies since they are so similarly related. Billy was also upset when the Quartet sang "That Old Gang of Mine" because he never had a gang. He couldn't explain it, only that he felt like he was missing something. I tried the dog trick on my dog and he was so nervous that when I put him on the mirror, he just stood there. I couldn't get him to look down either so I put a treat on the mirror for him and he looked down to eat the treat, saw himself, ate the treat, and then walked away unfazed. He didn't even jump.
I don't think Billy was ever able to truly get to know his son simply because he was so enveloped in his time travels and what he was learning from the Tralfamadorians,along with post-war trauma, that he never really got the opportunity(s) to get to know Robert.I also think it has to do with major differences between the two. Billy wasn't really cut out for the army or war and never fit the mold like others among st him, but then there's Robert who cleaned his character up and was able to meet the criteria in order to be a Green Beret. I do believe that Billy is proud of his son and the fact that he made the transformation from a wild delinquent to a strong soldier.
The significance of the date of the bombing in Dresden on 2/13/45 is that Billy died on the 13th of February years later. I feel that Billy is selfish in many ways. We hear a lot about Billy's life, and Billy's feelings, and Billy's experiences. He doesn't seem to care a lot about others or if he does then he doesn't seem to show it. Billy never gave getting to know his son a chance. He was always so engulfed with time travel and again his own life that he put aside his son. Billy was never really like everyone else.
Kilgore trout is a character. His writing are all about the flaws you can find in society today such as greediness, in which is shows through one of his pieces where a tree that produces twenty dollar bills is found and people kill each other at its roots. Another one of his writings is about a lonely robot with bad breath that kills people because he wants friends, but no one will befriend him and help save the lives of helpless people. Barbara, Billy’s daughter, believe that Trout is the root of her fathers illness and would do anything to help her father so she says she would Kill Mr. Trout. Yes he is a bad person and yells at young children and fantasizes about death and in some way, shape or form is corrupting Billy’s mind, but killing him would make her an even worse person.
Billy liked his son, but didn't really know him which probably came from Billy being so caught up in his stories that he never really payed attention to others. Also Billy's son serves his country just like his father did. I think this might show Billy's son trying to make his father proud and get his attention which he probably never really got as a child. However Billy fathered a child with Montana Wildhack and went through the whole pregnancy with her which shows he is caring and affectionate. It makes me wonder why he never became close to his son unless it was his son that didn't want to become close to Billy. If Billy was willing to stay with Montana and help her along with her pregnancy I wonder if he did that for Valencia. Also I wonder why Billy ended up leaving Tralfamador and Montana didn't. It seems as if Billy was too caught up in himself and his stories of his life to ever really give enough attention to other people.
I think Vonnegut wanted to add in the part about the open inn outside of the destroyed town of Dresden because it showed that the attackers were looking for one specific place. For some reason, they really wanted to take Dresden down. Maybe they knew that was where the soldiers were camping out. But the fact that there is a hotel right outside of the city that is still open shows that the boundaries for the attack were set to Dresden only. They weren't killing just to kill, they were looking for something or someone in that exact spot. Maybe they felt threatened by the city and the people in it. Or maybe the owners of the inn are on the attackers team and are plotting something because they expected the soldiers to show up. It seemed really sketchy to me.
I think Vonnegut wanted to add in the part about the open inn outside of the destroyed town of Dresden because it showed that the attackers were looking for one specific place. For some reason, they really wanted to take Dresden down. Maybe they knew that was where the soldiers were camping out. But the fact that there is a hotel right outside of the city that is still open shows that the boundaries for the attack were set to Dresden only. They weren't killing just to kill, they were looking for something or someone in that exact spot. Maybe they felt threatened by the city and the people in it. Or maybe the owners of the inn are on the attackers team and are plotting something because they expected the soldiers to show up. It seemed really sketchy to me.
It makes sense that Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout. Although I feel like Billy has never truly been in a good state of mind in his life, except for maybe his childhood, Billy gets worse after reading his books. Billy thinks his life is just like "The Big Board". However, it's pretty harsh of his daughter to say. Okay, your dad is crazy. But that isn't necessarily Kilgore Trout's fault. He writes what he wants, he isn't asking anyone to live those stories or believe in them. Kilgore Trout doesn't even consider himself as a writer, much less a life guide. Mr. Rosewater reads those books just fine and can still act as a normal human being (as far as the reader knows. At least he can carry on a conversation with somebody else's mother). Billy takes the obsession with Kilgore's writing upon himself.
Sorry, Barbara.
Throughout this novel, Billy Pilgrim read many novels by the author Kilgore Trout. Many of Trout's novels go along with Pilgrim's delusions. With this being said, Barbra, Billy's daughter, blames Trout for all of the times that Billy has acted up such as telling his young client at the optometry clinic about his fascinating discoveries about the Tralfamadorians and so on... Which is why she wants to kill him, for messing with her father's mind. However, I do not necessarily agree with Barbra's stance that Trout is the only one to blame. Without a doubt this author is quite loopy but I also take into consideration that Billy is a Vietnam veteran and it is well known that many veterans suffer from PTSD. Like Megan mentioned above: Rosewater read Trout's novels and was still able to act like a normal human being. So I do not think that Trout can take all the blame here. Maybe Billy uses his "time travel" as a sort of escape. However, some may have a different opinion.
The first thing I thought of when Howard W. Campbell Jr. began talking about the brotherhood between the Americans and Russians was the conflict that we now have with the Russians. I was watching President Obama's address of the plane that was shot down near the Russian-Ukraine border. He discussed how the United States will support Ukraine but will not stand behind Russia. I just thought it was an odd coincidence to make a connection with this book and a current issue we are currently having. Although we have had conflicts with Russia for a while now, the novel was written in 1969. Obviously, Vonnegut was unaware of what would be happening now. It's still very interesting to me!
The first thing I thought of when Howard W. Campbell Jr. began talking about the brotherhood between the Americans and Russians was the conflict that we now have with the Russians. I was watching President Obama's address of the plane that was shot down near the Russian-Ukraine border. He discussed how the United States will support Ukraine but will not stand behind Russia. I just thought it was an odd coincidence to make a connection with this book and a current issue we are currently having. Although we have had conflicts with Russia for a while now, the novel was written in 1969. Obviously, Vonnegut was unaware of what would be happening now. It's still very interesting to me!
Burnt jellied gasoline is napalm. 400,000 tons of napalm were used in the Vietnam war. It causes SEVERE burns on your skin - gruesome stuff. I think Vonnegut's point of having Trout write about robots making it and using it is that people in war are basically at the point where they're brainwashed into thinking what they're doing is good and they don't think twice about it. The robots couldn't think about what they were doing, they were just programmed to drop burning jellied gasoline on people.
Dresden was bombed on 2/13/45, and 31 years later on this exact date, Billy would be killed by Paul Lazzaro. I think Lazzaro planned this because he believes Billy should have died in the bombing, but didn't. So he wants to make sure he dies on an anniversary of that date.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she believes he is the source of inspiration of her father's crazy stories. With how much trouble Billy's theories are supposedly causing, she would probably love to eliminate the supposed source. I think Derby's stance against Campbell was good, and I would have thought the same thing. I think the other Americans didn't say anything because they were too tired to complain about their situation and saw standing up to be pointless. Jellied gasoline is napalm. It was used widely in the Vietnam war.
I think it took a lot for Derby to stand up against Campbell, even though at that point no one had much to lose. I like that he called him less than a snake. Snake's can't help being snakes, they just are, Campbell on the other hand can in fact help what he is, he just chooses to be the worse option. I think Billy's daughter see's what readers see, Billy's delusions match Trouts ideas in his books, mainly where Billy is getting his story from. On Billy's son; Billy himself was struggling so I can't imagine he had developed a good relationship with his son over the years.
The fact that Billy went through Montana's entire pregnancy with her shows that he is a caring man, although like I have said before, I don't approve that the child was created by adultery. Oh look at me, I sound as commending as the townsfolk from the novel "The Scarlet Letter," but oh well. Even though Billy has no real attachment to Montana Wildhack, I can respect that he stayed with her and the child and takes care of them in a way. It is very honorable of him to do such a thing when he could completely ignore them. It was interesting to me though that Montana can tell when Billy is time travelling. Even though they were put together as complete strangers, they have grown to know each other and honestly care for one another. I just wish Billy didn't have a wife on Earth. Nonetheless, it is respectable of Billy to care for Montana as well as their child.
The Bombing of Dresden occurred on February 13, 1945. This date is ironically similar to the date of Billy Pilgrim’s death, February 13, 1976, 31 years after the Bombing of Dresden. He died at 53 years old. Upon referencing the average life expectancy, which was 69.1 years for a man in 1976, one could conclude that Billy Pilgrim died very, very young. Many factors probably played a role in Billy’s passing so early in life, such as his role in WWII, and his high-strung, controlling family, for starters. Plus, the fact that Tralfamadorians could sweep in and capture Billy whenever and wherever they felt like it had to take a toll on his body—especially with all of his time-traveling. Just think about it, people with long commutes to work or other obligations have a significantly shorter lifespan, just imagine what all that traveling back-and-forth to Tralfamadore did to Billy…
The fact that Billy stays on another planet while Montana is pregnant is very respectable. It shows that he at least cares to help father the child. Billy always has seemed to be out for himself, in a way, but he chooses to stay with Montana. Making Billy seem like an overall better person. It does seem a little weird reading through that knowing that Billy already has a wife on Earth, however, there have been weirder things in this novel and so on...
I thought it to be extremely courageous when Derby stood up and told off Campbell especially because he was the only one. IT shows that Derby was a true patriot and a true american hero. The fact that everyone else just kept there mouths shut just shows that they were to immature or not ready for war otherwise cowards. Billy's daughter wanted to kill the writer because she is pissed that Kilgore filled her fathers head with all the science fiction non-sense. The jellied gasoline is known today as Napalm used extensively in the Vietnam War. The date of 2/13 sounds familiar because as we learned earlier in the story that is the day billy will die a few years down the road. In my personal eyes I see Billy helping with the baby and taking care of Montana as a responsible adult. I am not exactly sure why Vonnegut included this scene but my guess would be to show that life would continue for these refuges and German soldiers. I will say this however Vonnegut does include a ton of strange peculiar pieces to his novel.
Billy's daughter places the blame on Trout for the cause of her fathers mental problems, and this is why she wants to kill him. The date sounds familiar because years later on this exact date, Billy would die. The fact that Billy stayed for the pregnancy makes me have a little more respect for him. It takes a guy to create a life, but a man to stick around for one. The jellied gasoline is napalm and it is used in war to create very severe burns. Tons and tons of it was used in the Vietnam war.
I like most main characters in books I read, but I really do not care for Billy. I realize that he went through horrible experiences, but in his life after the war, he deals with it badly and some of the things he does frustrate me. It doesn’t seem like he really cares for his family. He is kind to Valencia and treats her right but he is also just so unresponsive and careless. Same goes for his children. The quote about Billy not knowing his son very well irritated me to no end. Billy went through a terrible experience but he survived! Instead of using the excuse of the war and the time travelling crap to justify his feelings he should instead be involved as he can with his children instead of pushing them away. Many times he pushes his daughter away when she is just trying to help him. If Billy knows all the secrets of the universe and knows precisely when he and everyone else is going to die, shouldn’t he cherish that time he has left? Billy’s nonchalance about everything that happens in this novel aggravates me and makes Billy and unlikable character in my opinion.
Kilgore Trout not only gave Billy ideas or hopes, but supported any "insane" idea he had before. I'm sure his daughter isn't too thrilled on how his life could have a negative affect on her father's. Billy has read many, many of Trout's books, none of which make any money. Billy's daughter must not see any point in giving him that much imagination into his already tainted brain. How Trout lives and treats other people must have had an impact on Billy's life at some point. His daughter, I'm sure, is quite fed up with his stubbornness, and his stories embarrass her still. Just one more thing to blame other than Billy, the war, the Tralfamadorians, and the plane crash, is just Kilgore Trout.
All of the sites that I’ve seen says that an American Free Corps does not exist, or that it was so small that we kept little or no information on the traitors. I did, however, find the British Free Corps which was nearly what I was looking for. It consisted of British and Dominion prisoners of war, who instead of sitting around as prisoners of war, became Nazis. It was active in 1943 through 1945 and its greatest size was only 27 men. The Nazis recruited men who lived lavish lives as POW’s, and asked the men to fight the real enemy, the Soviets. One recruit was the son of the serving British Secretary of State for India, Leopold Amery. John Amery was sentenced to death and hanged at the Central Criminal Court to high treason. The men recruited reminded me of the British prisoners of war in the novel. The were living lavish lives as POW’s but restless and ready for a change. They had copious amounts of food but allowed the Soviets outside their camp to starve to death. It makes me wonder if their friendliness with the German guards, their restlessness, and their hatred of the Soviets could add up to new recruits for the British free Corps.
I think what has become of Kilgore Trout is funny. Billy is one of the very few people who have read Trout's books and even know of him. Billy finds Trout in an alley talking to newspaper boys oh and also one newspaper girl. He is the circulation man for the Ilium Gazette. Some job for an old published author. Trout is a bitter man who doesn't believe Billy even knew who he was at first and was so surprised at what an avid fan Billy was. Billy and Trout become friends and Billy invited him to the wedding anniversary. Trout has a great time here talking to people. It's funny that Trout has influenced Billy's life so much and they live right around the corner from each other. I am also surprised that Billy's daughter didn't actually take a chance in trying to really kill Trout.
Billy does not care about his child, and therefore doesn’t know about his child and what his interests are. Billy is in his own world, and blocks people out. It’s all about him and what he wants. It is never about anybody else but him. Yeah I get that he has been through some tough times and all but you’ve got to be strong for your child and for the others around you. Also, that should be the reason to keep you going, knowing that your child is alive and on this earth. His mental problems have turned him off the beaten path of civilization in that’s all the man does and thinks. Billy can’t live a normal life because of this downfall. He is just living in a different world, and a very weird one.
Kilgore Trout enrages Billy's daughter for various reasons; the main being that his ideas are what managed to somehow encourage Billy's "time travels". Billy's daughter sees this and decides to pin the blame on Kilgore Trout because she's very much desperate to find a cause for her father's instability. His daughter does not want to accept that her father is more than likely losing his sanity and it's probably for various reasons. She is in denial. She has already lost her mother and she isn't ready to lose her father. She does not want to deal with a crazy father. She needs something to blame because apparently she refuses to blame it on the war.
Because Kilgore Trout has wrote so many odd books and little have heard about these novels, he is an easy target for the blame. He and Billy also get along well because their beliefs are similar. This makes Trout seem unstable and makes it seem like his "crazy" is rubbing off on Billy. So naturally, Billy's daughter blames Trout.
After the bombings when there is almost nothing left but ashes and rumble of the once prosperous city there was not a single soul that could be found. The innkeepers show their kindness to the Americans not only because they could but also because they were the only known people that survived the bombings. Heck if I was in the innkeeper’s shoe I would have let them stay as well. They were the only live people they had seen since the bombing. Life as they know it has completely changed and everyone they used to know in that city is most likely dead. For once people were looking to other’s wellbeing instead of looking at soldiers of the axis powers and soldiers of the allied forces. I think that is why it was put in there but that’s just my opinion.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kligore Trout because she thinks he is the inspiration for his crazy stories. In part she is right, I think between the novels and everything Billy saw in the war it made him lose himself. It's understandable after seeing so much destruction that one would want to lose themselves in a fantasy world, and that is exactly what Billy Pilgrim did. Though many see him as crazy, after reading an account of his life I find he is just getting along the best he can. With Montana Wildhawk he cares for her while he is pregnant, I think this could be because he has seen so much death that he feels the need to create some life, some good in the world.
"Billy liked him, but didn't know him very well."
Sounds like something that hits home with a majority of parents. As we all know, teenagers grow up and they start to live life and figure out who they are. During this journey, many parents feel neglected or ignored. It’s almost as if they don’t recognize their child because they conjured up this illusion of the perfect kid, and it’s not going according to plan. I’m sure Billy, for instance, didn’t think his son would lack motivation throughout his life, only to become a Green Beret (if you exclude the part about being able to time travel). However, he is still his kid and he does still love him, despite not knowing much about him. I feel there is a lot of truth in the statement. If only parents realized that we live for ourselves and not to please them, maybe they wouldn’t feel so astray.
I did find it odd that one of Billy's greatest memories from Dresden was of the guards. I found it even stranger that they reminded him so much of barbershop quartet. Especially because he was only judging based one appearances, not off of how they acted or personality. I would tend to think that appearances would not be enough to bring back such strong memories, but then I thought about it. I believe that the situation played a bigger role in Billy's reaction, than the appearances of the quartet. In both situations, the guards and the quartet, all four of them were going to die. No doubt about it.
Billy's daughter Barbra wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she believes that he is the reason for Billy's crazy stories. Many of Billy's stories coincide with the stories in Trout's novels, specifically the one about being in an out of this world zoo. The stories that Billy is supposedly getting from the novels are making him sound crazy and out of his wits. Although Billy's insane stories could be caused from the plane crash he was in, Barbra continues to blame Trout's novels for his mixed up thoughts.
Continue from my last post.
I think that she is trying to blame Trout for Billy going crazy because she does not want to think that her father is truly loosing his mind. She is convincing herself that the novels are making him act as he is. But in reality, Billy has faced many hard times in his life. After all of the things he has seen and done in the war, and the struggles he faced back home after, it only makes sense that he has gone a little delusional. Barbra just does not want to believe it so she puts the blame on someone else and it happens to be Trout.
I have a few theories of how it came to be that Billy doesn’t know his son. First of all Billy seems to have been a little crazy from the beginning. This is starting with the pool at the Y.M.C.A. and the Grand Canyon and other small things like that. Then the war quite obviously made his mental state worse. So I have a feeling that Billy is too occupied with figuring himself out that he has no time left to get to know his son. It seems like he is mentally absent more often than not. Especially with all the time traveling he does. The next problem I saw is that Billy might not have even tried to get to know his son. After the line about how he doesn’t really know his son it goes on to say Billy didn’t get the feeling that there was much to know about him. This may also be because his son was into alcohol and drugs which alter your personality, this is my third theory. My fourth is that this is a result of a combination of the first three. I believe in this theory the most.
Billy Pilgrim reacts very strange to the song "old gang of mine" because it reminds him of something, or sometime. It reminded him of the night that Dresden was bombed. He was reminded of being down in the meat locker while everything above him was being burnt to the ground in Dresden. The guards reminded him of a barbershop quartet, and when he was in the presence of this quartet it reminded him of the guards. It reminded him of the war and how destroyed Dresden was, and how nothing was left. The guards weren't really fazed by the damage of the city.
The bombing of Dresden happens on the day before valentines day, which was also the day that Billy dies, that has to be connected. Also the song "Old Gang of Mine" Reminded him of the guards and everything that happened in Dresden. The scene where Billy and the Americans move through the rubble to see an inn open for business is eerie. I think it represents that just because the place was bombed doesn't mean that everything is dead.
February 13th is a very familiar date in the novel, noting that the bombing of Dresden took place on this date in 45 (135,000 dead), and Billy Pilgrim later died on February 13th , 76. I am now curious of some other major events that happened on this day in history.
• 1633: Italian astronomer, Galileo arrives in Rome for trial because of belief the Earth revolves around the sun (This goes against the Christian faith, like most of us learned about in Mr. Wood.so history class).
• 1861: Abraham Lincoln declared president.
• 1920: National Negro Baseball League is organized.
• 1935: First US surgical operation to relieve angina ( Chest pain due poor blood flow through blood vessels in the heart)
• 1972: Well-known “Greece” opens on Broadway.
• 2001: Earthquake kills 400 in El Salvador.
In chapter eight of the novel, Billy explains to us that he liked his son very much, and didn’t know him that well all at the same time. I believe this to be true as Billy had many things happen to him in his life, from the war, to the plane crash, to being in a mental institution. On top of all that, his family was very rich, which makes me believe time for bonding with one another was very minimal. Billy also explained that his son got in with the wrong crowd, and became a drunk when he was 16, pulling them further apart from one another. On another note, during the 18th anniversary for Billy and Valencia, the singing quartet reminded him of the four guards who were at Dresden with him. This brought back chills and fear from the war at Dresden, which also perked the curiosity of Kilgore Trout. Lastly, 2/13/45 holds a very significant date, as that was the same day Billy died, just 31 years later.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she blames him for Billy's Tralfamadorian beliefs. Since, she does not believe or like her father's alien tales. The memory of the German guards had to be one of Billy's stongest merories in the book. This is because this a one moment he did not have to time travel to remember. It must have been a tragedy burned in his brain, since he looked like he'd seen a ghost. This could also be forshadowing for a gruesome death for the quartet.
I can understand why Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout. I probably would too if I were in her shoes. Many of the ideas that Billy is spouting are ideas that show up in Kilgore's books. Therefore, it would be a logical assumptions that Billy read those books, went crazy, and thought that those events were real. It would be a tragic story.
I am glad that Billy's son did turn out okay, from what we've heard. From what we've heard of Billy's son, Billy was probably afraid to do any sort of bonding, or was unable to from the son's end. It's a tragic story.
I think that Derby’s stance against Campbell is brave. I also think it was the smart thing to do because in the end they didn’t end up fighting the communists. I think that is was a very great think to do since he was the only one to stand up and say no. It was a smart decision to pick a few more days and a bombing in Dresden over food and fighting the communists because it assured them more time to be alive. I also think that is was a surprise for Derby to be the one to stand up because he is just an old high school teacher while some of them are younger and more outgoing and boisterous. Maybe since Derby got picked as the leader he just wanted to show the rest of the Americans that he is brave and he is reliable in times like this.
Jellied gasoline is referred to today as napalm, or agent orange. It was used extensively in Vietnam, by the United states during the Vietnam war. Napalm was used to burn forests and fields, in order to flush out the Viet Cong forces from the jungle.
In the book, robots created and used napalm to symbolize how inhuman the thing was. We ask ourselves: "How can we claim to value life, when what we create is destruction?" Robots are used in place of humans because they couldn't possibly understand what that value actually is. But in reality, humans were the ones who created it, and humans were the ones who used it.
Burning jellied gasoline is called napalm today. It was used a lot in air raids on Japan during the Pacific War. Napalm sticks to your skin and causes extreme burns. I think it's important that robots created it because it's a horrible thing to do to other human beings. Vonnegut writes "They had no conscience.." and I think that's his way of satirizing how people can completely forget about the lives they are destroying-many of which are innocent. People are devoid of consciousness and humanity during war, essentially becoming a robot.
Billy's daughter want;s to kill Kilgore Trout because Billy really likes him. She could possibly blame Trout for her father's behavior. Trout writes about time windows and science fiction so it's not a stretch for someone to think he is a big influence on Billy's life.
Billy appears to be somewhat distant from reality throughout all of Slaughterhouse-Five. He is often “time travelling”, working, or spending time in a hospital. It does not surprise me that he does not know son very well, because he doesn’t pay super-close attention to him. Also, Billy was most likely raised differently than his son with a different set of beliefs. By saying he doesn't know him well could also be saying he is unable to recognize himself in him. Finally, it is revealed that his son was a trouble maker until the army straightened him out. So possibly, when Billy saw him completely changed form before, he could not recognize him as his troubled son, or even as his little boy.
Had I been Billy's daughter, I, too, would have harsh feelings towards Kilgore Trout. The man practically fueled Billy's delusions. Brain damage left Billy's mind weak and vulnerable. His mental guard was down when Eliot Rosewater invaded it with Trout's writings. When in fear, you cling to what you know to be true. Billy stated himself that when he dreamed, he dreamed true things, and these true things were time travel. He also said that time travel was a very common theme throughout Trout's novels. At this point, it's very clear that Billy has a form of PTSD in which the comfort world that he often escapes to is one of impossible journeys and creatures. In moments of fear and confusion, Billy's mind transports him to what he believes is true, his home in the Tralfamadorian zoo and the life he was forced to create there (though he seems to have enjoyed it). It's awful for me to think about what all he had to have seen to find such bizarre surroundings comforting. Billy lives half of his life in that strange little delusion. Yes, if I had been Billy's daughter, I could've killed Kilgore Trout as well.
I think Billy's daughter wants to kill Trout because of the similarities she sees between his stories and her father. She believes the stories he read are what sparked the "craziness" of her father. Trout himself even seems to not be "all there" at some points. It also confused me why he talks about how writing about things that didn't really happen is fraud, but yet his books are about money trees and robots. Hmmmm..... Jellied gasoline today is known as Napalm. It was used extensively in the Vietnam War. I think it's important that robots created and used it in the war to show how humans are robots to war. We do what we are told and really have no say in what happens. We kill hundreds of people without even thinking about how that would feel from our own point of view.
Although I still feel it was a disgusting act, the fact that Billy stuck around for the length of the pregnancy said a lot about him. Billy really was not invested in Montanta at all, he could have bailed on her and the child and simply went on with his life. It was a very mature and responsible way for him to handle the situation the way he did. It seems this book is full of a many different forms of maturity, maybe I could learn a thing or two... It struck me as quite odd the Montana was able to tell when Billy had been time traveling. The bond that formed between the two is yet another very inspiring aspect of this story. Two people, complete strangers, were able to come together and really learn to care about each other. Regardless though, the whole cheating thing, yeah I'm still not too happy about that.
The bombing of Dresden was on 2/13/45, the day before Valentine's Day, while Billy happened to die on 2/13/76. Obviously this is very ironic and honestly quite depressing. After surviving one of the worst massacres of the war, Billy is to die on the same day said bombing occurred. In the end it doesn't surprise me that Vonnegut would choose this unfortunate ending for Billy. All in all, Billy's life has been unfortunate all along and this was, again, an unfortunate way for Billy to die. It just goes to show that life really isn't fair. For some people it has its ups and downs while for others, Billy in this case, life just has its downs. Billy may have been supposed to die on that dreaded day in Dresden and in this way fate finally caught up to him.
I feel as if many girls nowadays could fit into the description of "She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies." Or maybe men just go after looks, and not anything deeper than them? Who knows. Many people look to the shell, and hardly ever deeper than that. So you have a pretty shell, but an ugly inside. Doesn't matter to many anymore if your insides are ugly and your outsides are pretty. Wow, I sound like such a terribly pessimistic person.
Billy's daughter would like to kill Kilgore Trout because in her mind he was the creator of Billy's mental illnesses, that he was the cause of his down fall. Mental illnesses tend to root from inside a human, from their chemicals and their balances inside their brains and bodies. It's unfair of her to pin the blame on Trout, but she didn't/couldn't put the blame on her father. Trout,to me, seemed like a scapegoat for her.
The barbershop quartet singing "Old Gang of Mine" gave me an eerie feeling because Billy knew that they were going to die soon. I was glad that Billy stayed with Montana all throughout the pregnancy. It showed a lot about his character. He acted like an adult and was very mature about the situation. He wasn't very interested in being with Montana in he first place but this showed that maybe he cared a little bit. It still makes me mad about the whole cheating situation though. It's never right to do that. Jellied gasoline is called today napalm and also agent orange. It was used in Vietnam and it causes terrible burns to the skin. It was used by the United States to burn down forests over seas.
I agree with Zanna that in todays day in age many girls fall under the category of "a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies." I also agree that men often chase woman who seem as so. However, the girls are the ones who create that impression of themselves. Every person has something deeper to them than "an invitation to make babies", but today many people want that to be others view of them. It helps to cover up their true identity, which for some reason, people are most terrified to reveal.
Billy may not know his son because he is never really there. Always hopping through time must have an effect on his relationships. He's missing consecutive years of bonding because he is unstuck in time. He never experiences anything in the present time, only in the past or future. He can't see his children grow and change because he's in a different time. It's hard to know someone when you see them at different ages and stages in your life.
I think Billy reacted like so to the barber shop quartet because he's going through PTSD not only from experiencing the war every other day, but also his plane crash. The barber shop quartet was there in every situation in some way. They were singing on the place before it crashed, and when Billy saw the aftermath of Dresden he said the guards resembled a quartet. He thought the guards were singing "Old Gang of Mine" This song would remind him of the destruction and devastation that was all around him in Dresden, and it's his subconscious reacting so severely to the memories the song brought forth that caused his small breakdown.
The fact that Billy stayed with Montana throughout her entire pregnancy shows that he is willing to fulfill his responsibilities, which is very mature of him. He and Montana never really had a deep emotional bond, so most men in his position would leave the woman. It would not have been respectable for Billy to leave, but it would have been understandable. But he understands that that child is just as much his as it is Montana's, and supports her throughout the whole pregnancy. This shows that he must care at least a little bit. For someone who has spent his whole life looking out for himself, this small act of selflessness shows that he has grown into a man his child can look up to.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Trout because she blames him for the cause of her dad's mental issues. The date is something to remember because years later on the same date Billy dies. I respect Billy a lot though because during Montana's pregnancy he stays on another planet. Most men now a days cannot even be called men because when some women do get pregnant they run. Billy didn't run and I respect that. It proves to me that even with his mental state in the state that it is that he can still have strong emotions and do the right thing.
Billy’s daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she believes he is to blame for her father’s mental instability. Even though I feel he was instable before reading Trout’s books, the crazy science fiction novels made Billy’s condition worse. Billy’s daughter finds many ideas of Trout linked to those of her fathers. She’s desperate in her search for the reason of her father’s psychological issues and is in denial of losing her father. Rather than blaming it on war, she tries to find something easier and less horrific instead, such as a person. All these things combined makes Billy’s daughter imply blame at Kilgore Trout rather than her own father.
I think that Vonnegut used the Bombing of Dresden in the novel to show how significant it was to Billy's life. I also think that something weird is going on because before the plane crashed there was a quartet singing and the guards had repeatedly reminded Billy about a quartet while in Dresden? The author is keeping Billy alive in these situations for a reason, what that reason is I'm not sure yet! But I think we all know that Billy has had several near death experiences so far in the novel!
The fact that one of Billy’s strongest memories after the bombing of Dresden was the barber shop quartet is very strange. It kind of leads you to believe that he is very crazy in the head. All of his memories and stories are mashing all together in his head, and he’s getting confused. The time traveling stories and the bombing of Dresden are two very important events in Billy’s life. He may be making up the time traveling, and he’s already very distraught from the war, so that’s why maybe these ideas in his head could be getting all mashed together. The bombing of Dresden was on 2-13-45. This date sounds familiar because it’s the day that Billy died. Again, all of the dates, ideas, and events are getting mashed up in his head. He’s getting very confused. It seems like everything in Billy’s mind is strangely linking together.
Billy’s hallucinations of the Tralfamadorians and the real world have a connection. Memories, to the average person, are things that have happened in the past and continue to exist in our minds. Billy saw the bombing of Dresden as a “leap in time.” The reader sees the bombing as a present event. The Aliens’ perception of time is that things that happen are always happening because the past, present, and future are all occurring simultaneously. Nothing, not even time itself can rid events or prevent them from occurring. So these war events, bombings, raids, are all happening at the same time. This is why he had a breakdown when he finally “remembered” his memories. He depended on the fact that these events always occurred and he was suddenly overwhelmed with the fact that he was no longer dependent on his time hops.
Billy’s relationship with his son is quite odd to say the least. The quote “Billy liked him, but didn’t really know him very well” (176) makes it sound like his son is just another guy from the office, someone who he might be acquainted with, but definitely not his offspring. After I read that it made me feel sad with the life that Billy had lead, a man who doesn’t want to live, married to a woman he didn’t want to marry in the first place, suffering from a lot of mental issues, and he barely even knew his own son. I think that might have been part of the reason that he got so worked up after “The Febs” sang their song, he was reminded of how his life didn’t really match up with everyone around him. Billy had seen things and done things that no one else had and he basically isolated himself and it seems to me like he was either jealous or upset about how differently his life could have been without the war and the alien abductions. I thought that it was really strange that the Barbershop Quartet reminded Billy of the guards at Dresden, but then again I don’t think like Billy at all. February 13th is the day that Dresden is bombed and basically everyone in the city is killed and also the day that Billy is murdered.
Billy's daughter wants to Kill Kilgore Trout. The phrase "kill Kilgore" makes me uncomfortable, because of the repetition of the first syllables, anyone else? Mr. Trout has published a book about two Earthlings who are used as an exhibit on an alien zoo with false stimuli to make them perform. Sounds an awful lot like Billy's story. I don't think that it really matters whether the book or Billy's perception came first, his daughter will blame him for the uncontrollable behavior of Billy. Billy doesn't know his son very well, could it be because his time travel never brought him to his son? Or at least it happened very few times. He often visited Valencia, Barbara, and even Montana, but never really anything more eventful than the run in at the bathroom occurred with his son. Maybe Billy was too preoccupied with other times than the one he was currently in. I think that can happen to normal, non-time-travelling parents too. The bombing of Dresden was on February 13, the day before Valentine's Day, and the day of Billy Pilgrim's demise. Coincidental? How else would one celebrate the decimation of a beautiful city, but with the demise of their own life. The use of the working Inn is to show that the bombing of Dresden wasn't given much thought at the time either. Not necessarily any thought, but equally as little consideration as it is today.
Hmmm, an inn open in a time of need. Sounds like when Jesus was born and Mary and Joseph needed a place to be kept safe. That's the connection I made. Especially since Jesus is brought up several times throughout this part of the book through Kilgore Trout's novels. Speaking of Kilgore Trout, if my father had become seemingly delirious and was talking about time travel and aliens, I would blame it on the bitter, crazy, science-fiction author for planting these infectious seeds in his mind. Not that killing him would solve the problem, but maybe it could supply some relief through revenge. I see his daughter's logic. After trying to do everything for her father, he was so far gone, and that would be very frustrating, so frustrating maybe she could kill someone!
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because it just so happened that Billy seemed to start going insane when he was introduced to Kilgore's science fiction novels. This is also when all of Billy's crazy alien illusions started to come about. I myself can understand why she would believe this because all evidence points to Billy's growing friendship with Kilgore. There's was not much else going on at the time to put the fault on for her father's declining mental health. Billy's daughter is just trying to look out fot her father and wants whats best for him, like any daughter would for her father. If one of my loved ones started to act like that and all evidence pointed towards someone else coming into the picture and intoxicating they're life, I would be making the same accusations. It's very easy for us as human beings to get defensive when it comes to the ones we love and care about, especially family.
The substance it’s referring to is napalm. Napalm is a mixture of a thickening/gelling agent and petroleum, or another flammable fuel. It was initially used on buildings, and later was used as a weapon. One of the main features of napalm is that it sticks to human skin, with no practical method for removal of the burning substance. It was used extensively in World Wars, and it was also used in Vietnam forests to drive the Viet Cong out. It was important for robots to create napalm because they used it to symbolize how barbaric and inhumane it is. The robots were programmed to do this without any care or feelings for the people they used it against, just like normal human beings when it comes to war.
Billy's daughter would want to kill Kilgore Trout because he appears to be partially responsible for the mental issues that her father is experiencing. For starters, the stem of the Tralfamadorian incidents seem to be from the book that Billy read called "The Big Board". In this novel, the planet Zircon-212 is described almost exactly like the planet of the Tralfamadorians, including the zoo where the humans were kept. This fact can help explain why Billy thinks that he has interacted with the Tralfamadorians; however, while it does make sense that Billy could have just subconsciously made up the Tralfamadorians, it wouldn't explain how he knew about his impending demise and other events. Speaking of Kilgore Trout, the idea of burning jellied gasoline is what is referred to today as napalm. Napalm is a type of flammable "sticky fuel" that was used in numerous wars, including World War II. I believe it is important that robots created napalm in the book because it is a creation for mainly destruction. What I mean by this is that napalm's construction by robots is to show that "no sane human could possibly make such a destructive substance".
Billy reacts so adversely to the quartet’s song because he is basically standing in front of four men that he kills in the “future”. He is staring at the four men that he knows will lose their life in a short time. Billy’s feels as though he has some important secret bottled up inside. This secret is his knowledge of the future plane crash that will occur. I find it interesting that the barbershop quartet is mentioned right before the plane crash, as well as right when Billy’s remorse starts to set in. Also, I am beginning to enjoy the constant jumping around in the novel. I absolutely hated it at first, but now it is keeping me on my feet and always questioning. I also really like that Vonnegut compared the ruined Dresden to the scenery of the moon. I can picture a city of ash and stones that covers this beautiful city full of life and new technology.
I feel as if Billy doesn't know his son because he isn't very mentally and emotionally invested in the present moment. He is always thinking about his time travel and the aliens to really get to know his son. Billy is a very bland person, with a bland personality. He does not seem to enjoy his life at all, which he may have the right too since he has lived through hell, but his present day life is a nice situation. He has a loving wife (even if he may not love her back?), a nice family, and is wealthy. Billy is very disconnected with reality, however, and finds it hard to live in the moment and be happy. I don't think at any point does Billy say he is happy. He doesn't know his son because he is so disconnected that he has never really taken the time to get to know him. There are many fathers who really don't know their kids, at least Billy admits to it. I also think that Billy's son may have joined the Green Beret's in order to try and make Billy proud. Billy doesn't know his son and his son doesn't really know him, his son does, however, know that Billy fought in World War II and he may think that he can use the military to connect with his father.
2/13/45 sounds familiar because Billy Pilgrim dies on Feb. 13, 1969. Yet another coincidence that is not really a coincidence. I think Vonnegut planned this, whether to bring more attention to the date, or to tell us that Pilgrim could no longer live with the reality of what had happened in Dresden. The author also likes to play around with our perception of time, so maybe the time ripples from the bombing of Dresden created something in time that caused Billy to be killed on the same day in 1969.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout for putting the crazy stories and ideas into her fathers head. After Billy started reading the science-fiction novels, he started having the hallucinations and believing in the aliens. It's so sad listening to Billy's stories because they really do sound so genuine. I like to try to put myself in the same situation as his daughter, and in that case, i would be just as equally disturbed as she was. To see someone you love in such a state of confusion, it would rip my heart out. I have developed compassion for Billy's daughter and Billy as well. I love the comment about Valencia as well, it's funny because of how brutally honest the saying is. The person who we really love always seems to be the person we shouldn't love and vice versa. I mean I might consider marrying someone who was filthy rich, plan on attending school for free like Billy did, and plan on becoming the CEO of their parents business. I always thought it was adorable how much Valencia really did care about Billy, and how thoughtful she sometimes was. Billy was wrong to think of her as he really did. As for the pregnancy of Montana Wildhack, I was pretty mad at Billy for caving into his own personal wishes and going behind Valencia's trust. Again I say, it's so unusual that Billy is okay with being naked in a zoo exhibit.
I thought Billy sounded like he was sort of "showing off" that he knew the plane was going to crash and he was the only one that knew so he wanted to keep it that way. He didn't want to seem out of place. Also if he all of a sudden backed down then he would seem suspicious and maybe even blamed for the plane crashing (like he was blamed for killing his friend Weary?) And anyway, if he knew the plane was going to crash then he knew he was going to live. Why worry about it?
Maybe the reason the author included the scene with the women was because previously Billy had said that none of them had seen a women in a long time(I can't recall how long exactly) and when they finally get to see several(!!!) in the nude this is their reaction. <<<what I think at least
The jellied gasoline Vonnegut talks about is the napalm used in Vietnam. It was used to clear large areas of land fast. Though, with this, it destroyed villages and sadly, people. This turned soldiers into killing machines. On a different note, Billy's daughter blames Trout for Billy's mentality. She finds the coincidence too unlikely that all Trout's stories are things that "happened" in Billy's life. Trout talks about time travel, which could be molded to fit the traveling to the the aliens. She blames Trout, because that's the only tangible thing to blame. Yes, Billy has been traumatized, but there's not much else to blame.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she believes that Trout is the reason Billy started with all of the Tralfamadorian stories. I don't blame her for resenting Trout because to her, Trout fueled all of her father's disillusions. Everybody wants someone to blame, and Billy's daughter is blaming Trout for Billy's mental illness. Post traumatic stress disorder along with a head injury is bad enough. People just want things to be in their control, or in control by medications. It's a hard thing to handle when you ultimately have no control over your own mind anymore. It's one of the worst things to see a person go through. It can be compared to dementia in a way.
The American Free Corps sounds like a complete scam to get more people under the control of the ‘bad guys’ and use them to go against the Allies. Derby was so desperate that he wasn’t thinking straight and ended up getting himself killed when he could have stayed and survived the bombing. This shows how desperate the soldiers were just to get out of where they were in hope that they might be able to make it back to America safely. Billy’s daughter hates Trout because he is helping Billy to believe the alien stories. The jellied gasoline that Trout thought of is now called napalm and was used mostly against the Japanese, and was so harsh that it should have been used by aliens because any right-minded humans wouldn’t have been able to do it. Billy always has his guard up, and never has any type of emotions, so I was shocked when he freaked out about the ‘Old gang of mine’ song. But it shows that there is some good in Billy and he does act like a normal human at some times. I have no idea why the guards reminded him of the barbershop quartet, but sometimes the oddest things remind us of random things.
Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout, because he is the science fiction writer that Billy likes so much. She believes that his books have affected her father and made him crazy. One of the things that he had in one of this books would later become known as napalm and be used in the Vietnam War. He said that robots used it. This is important because it could be a metaphor for the people who used it. He could be saying that like robots, they are soulless war machines. Vonnegut also describes the war machine destruction of Dredsen. He says that after Billy comes out of the destruction he finds an inn. I think that he is trying to show that even in the face of destruction and adversity, our common humanity will provide help and hospitality.
"Billy liked him, but didn't know him very well."
When we are young our parents form a perfect mold that they want us to fit into. As we become teenagers and grow older we start breaking away from that and creating what we want to be. We start to disobey our parents and we don't want to live up to their expectations they have for us such as being a lawyer or doctor. I could understand how Billy couldn't recognize his son anymore.
Billy's daughter feels it necessary to kill Kilgore Trout because she holds him solely responsible for her father's apparent mental downfall. She believes this because his delusions seem to fall in line incredibly closely if not directly with many ofTrout's novels. Although Trout did not intentionally interfere with Billy's mental processes if he even did at all, I do not think wrongly of Billy's daughter to find a scapegoat for her father's ailment.
I think Billy's daughter wants to kill Kilgore Trout because she may think Trout is responsible for her father's absent-mindedness. He's barely a father. She is probably sick of Billy speaking of aliens and nonsense, and she's probably really embarrassed about it too. He insists that the Tralfamadorians are real, along with their own planet. His daughter just wants him to be a father and to be in reality. She turns to blame Trout and his outrageous novels for influencing Billy.
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