Chapter 1: Foreshadowing

          The way Vonnegut writes the first chapter of Slaughterhouse Five it almost seems to be more like a preface to the novel than part of the novel itself. In this chapter Vonnegut discusses his plans for the novel to us, the readers. One thing I found most intriguing was his statement, “It begins like this: Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet?” This statement gives me the idea that this chapter may have been written after the rest of the novel. Also, I enjoyed how Vonnegut describes the process he took in writing Slaughterhouse Five and the events that surrounded its conception.

         Throughout reading more of the book I picked up on the continuing cycle of time and how it seemed as if Billy Pilgrim is in an endless loop. I read chapter one again after reading the first five chapters just to get a consensus of some of the foreshadowing that took place in this chapter. I found the song on page 3 which went, “My name is Yon Yonson, I work in Wisconsin, I work in a lumbermill there. The people I meet when I walk down the street, they say, ‘“What’s your name?”’ And I say, ‘“My name is Yon Yonson, I work in Wisconsin…”’  This song is a great example of the endless loop that Billy Pilgrim takes throughout the book.