Slaughterhouse Five Summary

Slaughterhouse Five is the story about a man named Billy Pilgram. A disoriented, ill-trained American soldier, is captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bluge. The Germans imprison him and other PoWs in a disused slaughterhouse in Dresden. During air raids from the Allies, PoWs and guards hide in a deep cellar, because of their safe hiding place, he is one of few survivors of the bombing of the city. Because the bombs have screwed with his head, Billy has come "unstuck in time." He is kidnapped by extraterrestrial aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. They exhibit him in a zoo with movie star Montana Wildhack as his mate. The Tralfamadorians, who can see in four dimensions, have already seen every instant of their lives. They believe they can't choose to change anything about their fates, but can choose to concentrate upon any moment in their lives, and Billy becomes convinced of the correctness of their theories. Billy travels forward and back in time, reliving occasions of his life, real and fantastic. He spends time on Tralfamadore; in Dresden, in the War, with his German capture, and in his post-war married life with a woman named Valencia who is later killed when she is rushing to the hospital and wreaks her car and she gets carbon monoxide poisoning. In the end, Paul Lazzaro hires someone to shoot him after a speech.