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The Life of Billy Pilgrim
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Billy's Birth
Billy Pilgrim was born in 1922 in Ilium, New York -
Drafted into the Army.
As a 21 year old man, Billy was drafted into the United States Army and began serving as a chaplain's assistant in Virginia. This position shows that Billy's presence in the Army doesn't hold any real value because he is just in a filler position without having any actual authority. -
Billy is taken as a POW
Shortly after being abandoned by the other scouts, Billy and Roland Weary are found and taken by some German Soldiers and placed in boxcars on a train that brought them to a POW camp. This camp is filled with thousands of long, low, narrow sheds that had no light whatsoever. At camp he meets a few other main characters including Lazzaro and Derby. This event is one of the reasons that Billy has PTSD and he tries to cope with this experience by thinking he was abducted by the Tralfamadorians. -
Billy first becomes unstuck in time
The first time Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time is during WWII. Billy leans back onto a tree into the middle of the woods. He has fallen behind the other soldiers and doesn't care to try to catch up. He travels through random times in his life. This is the start of all of his time travel and despite the Tralfamadorians teaching Billy about this time travel, they were not involved in his first time. -
Discharge from Military
Billy is honorably discharged from the army and returns to his home town Ilium, New York where he re-enrolls into Optometry school and eventually finishes his degree. -
Bombing of Dresden
Billy and the others come up out of the meat locker shelter that they were in and saw a huge cloud of smoke and a mass of destruction. All of the beautiful architecture of the buildings were destroyed completely. This event is a turning point in the story and the way it's told is more important. Billy remembers the firebombing as a normally memory and not time travel. At this point in the story he is realizing and coming to terms with what happened to him and is waking up from the make believe. -
Billy is in a Mental Hospital
Billy is placed in a mental ward where he shares a room with Eliot Rosewater. Rosewater introduces Billy to Kilgore Trout's books which have a huge impact on his outlook on life in general. -
Billy cheats on Wife on New Years
During Billy's first time travel he bounced around in time to many different events and at one point he finds himself at a New Years party. He is extremely drunk and cheats on his wife and then passes out. -
Billy meets Kilgore Trout
Billy meets Kilgore Trout in a back alley in Ilium when he is having a meeting with his delivery boys. Billy helps him deliver the papers and explains to him that he is a fan and talks to him about Rosewater. Trout has no idea that he even had fans or that anyone read his books at all. -
Kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians
Billy is taken by a flying saucer to the planet Tralfamador where he learns many things about multiple dimensions and free will and time travel. He is placed in a zoo on their planet with the movie star Montana Wildhack so they can be displayed and observed by the aliens. -
Plane Crash
Billy is involved in a plane crash in Vermont and is the only one to survive. He has a fracture skull and is brought to the hospital. Soon after he runs away from the hospital and goes to New York City to tell the world about the Tralfamadorian's and their views about Earth and it's inhabitants. -
Valencia Dies
Billy's wife, Valencia, is involved in a car crash on her way to see Billy in the hospital after his plane crash. She then dies from carbon monoxide poising from a leak caused by the crash. Her death is presented in a way that makes it seem unimportant or somewhat meaningless. Billy doesn't seem to be that affected by her passing because, after all, she was just 'a symptom of his disease'. -
Billy Dies
Billy Pilgrim is shot in the head and killed with a high powered laser gun that was operated by a man that was hired by Paul Lazzaro. He promised Weary that he would get revenge for his death and this was it. The date that he is killed is very significant because it takes place on the same day that Dresden was bombed, just 30 years later.
