Chapter 5: Flashback

          Throughout the book and this chapter Billy has primarily traveled back and forth through the 1940’s (his yearly childhood), 50’s, and 60’s. In this chapter the reader sees Billy for the first time as a child, through a flashback. Somehow Vonnegut is still able to incorporate death on Billy’s family trip, which brings forth the “so it goes” once again. Throughout the other chapters Billy has traveled through time only when he blinks or closes his eyes; however, in this chapter the events change through the darkness of the caverns. On page 90 of this chapter is where this change of time came, “Billy went from total dark to total light, found himself back in the war.” Even though throughout this chapter the chronological nature of this book was not apparent to me the whole time, I still found it interesting that Billy traveled so far back to his childhood in chapter five of Slaughterhouse Five.