-
1213
Children's Crusade
Two monks got an idea of raising armies of children in Germany and France and selling them in North Africa as slaves. 30,000 children volunteered, thinking they were going to Palestine. KV and O'Hare were discussing this due to KV wanting to write a book. -
Billy Pilgrim
Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist, is born in Ilium, New York. He graduated high school in the upper third of his class. He attended one semester of optometry college before being drafted for WWII. -
Being Caught
When Weary was beating Billy to a pulp, they realized that they had a audience which was a group of German soldiers. Two were in their teens, two were old men, and their commander was a middle aged corporal. Billy and Weary were captured and became prisoners of war. -
Hitman
The war is nearly over. Billy and his fellow POWs get on a train finally headed for Dresden. One POW, Lazzaro, tells Billy that Roland died because of him, and that Lazzaro was going to hire a hitman to shoot him for it. Billy remembers that this indeed is the way he dies, having witnessed his own death several times. -
The Dresden Bombing
The bombing of Dresden in World War II is the central event mentally affecting Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist. Within, Vonnegut says the firebombing killed 135,000 German civilians; he cites The Destruction of Dresden by David Irving. -
Going Back to Dresden
KV goes back to Dresden with his old war buddy, Bernard V. O'Hare. He mentions how it reminds him of Dayton, Ohio. They both go back to the slaughter house that they were prisoners or war in. -
The Zoo
Inside the Tralfamadorian zoo, the human enclosure gets another resident: a movie star named Montana. She doesn't take the news of being abducted and put in a zoo nearly as well as Billy. -
Tralfamadore
Billy went to New York City and talk to a radio host about Tralfamadore. He told about having come unstuck time. He also talked about how he was kidnapped by a flying saucer in 1967. The saucer was from a planet called Tralfamadore, were he was displayed naked in a zoo and mated with a former movie star named Montana Wildhack. -
Going Crazy
As soon as Billy goes back to work at his optometry office, he gets escorted out by security after he tells a patient his seemingly crazy story of being abducted by aliens who live in four dimensions. -
The Plane Crash
Billy is involved in a plane crash in Vermont that kills everyone on board except him. This is the first time Kurt Vonnegut, the author, uses the phrase "so it goes." He writes this motif every single time death is mentioned in the story, even when it's not directly applied to someone dying (Ex: Vonnegut describes a flat soda as dead). While in the hospital, his wife dies of carbon monoxide poisoning. So it goes.
