Slaughter-House Five chapters 7-8

In chapter seven Billy starts in an aircraft accident, which he knew would already happen and that he knew he was not going to die at. Billy and the co-pilot are the only ones who survive the crash. It is very interesting, the way in which throughout the novel Billy survives many situations in which he could have died. He survived the war, the bombing in Dresden and the airplane crash. He also survived getting kicked at punched and banged all over like a toy. Throughout the novel we see, how the author shows extremely shocking moments as the most normal things that could happen, maybe this is to show the Tralfamador way of thinking in which everything is meant to happen and every happy moment will live forever.


The thing I like most about this book is the way that the author sees and plays with death. Every time he mentions death he ends the paragraph with "as it goes" as I have said in my previous blogs, but there is a very interesting character for which he shows a lot of pity in death and sees his death as a very sad happening. This character is Edgar Derby. In this book, we can see how Billy has a lot of pity for Edgar or as he calls him "poor old Edgar Derby". "Poor old Derby, the doomed high school teacher, lumbered to his feet for what was probably the finest moment in his life." (pg 164) Why is this why is his death different to all the other characters and living creatures that have died? This may be because Billy saw him as a father in the war, because he was the oldest and most experienced one in his group.

This two chapters explains Billy’s and his companions role in Dresden, how they had to work in a malt syrup factory, and how Billy and the others kept spoons hidden all over the factory in order to eat all day. I see this as a way of making fun of wars because prisoners of war are treated well and given jobs in which they can eat candy. " he stuck the lollipop into poor old Derby´s gaping mouth. A moment passed, and then Derby burst into tears." (Pg 161) Billy had develop a very interesting care for Derby and he doesn´t show this only in the way he sees his death as a tragedy but also in some situations like this one in which he saw him out the window and risked getting caught to give him some syrup. Why is Derby so important to Billy?