- massacrenounChapter 1 →
The brutal, large-scale killing of many people, especially those who cannot defend themselves. Here it refers to the firebombing of Dresden and the mass civilian deaths it caused.
“It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.”
- jumbledadjectiveChapter 1 →
Mixed up in a confused, disordered way, with no clear structure or logical arrangement. Vonnegut uses it to describe his own inability to organize his account of Dresden.
“It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.”
- jangledadjectiveChapter 1 →
Harshly discordant and chaotic, as if made of clashing, jarring sounds or feelings. Used alongside 'jumbled' to stress how fractured and nerve-wracking the narrative feels.
“It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.”
- unstuck in timephraseChapter 2 →
Involuntarily and randomly jumping between different moments of one's own life, with no control over which moment one lands in. It is the novel's central description of Billy Pilgrim's experience of time.
“Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.”
- So it goesphraseChapter 2 →
A fatalistic refrain meaning that death and suffering simply happen and must be accepted, without protest or grief. Vonnegut repeats it after every mention of death throughout the novel.
“So it goes.”
- flamingonounChapter 2 →
A tall, spindly pink wading bird. Used here as a simile to picture Billy as awkward, gangly, and out of place among the other soldiers.
“He was a filthy flamingo among the soldiers.”
- indifferentadjectiveChapter 3 →
Having no interest in or feeling about something; completely unmoved and uncaring. Billy feels nothing about the birds or about the war itself.
“Billy was as indifferent to the birds as he was to the war.”
- lieutenantsnounChapter 3 →
People who serve as close assistants or deputies to a leader, carrying out that leader's plans. Used here not as a military rank but to describe the scouts' role in Weary's self-glorifying fantasy.
“Weary had been the real leader, and the scouts had been his faithful lieutenants.”
- scoutsnounChapter 3 →
Soldiers sent ahead of the main force to gather information about enemy positions and terrain. In the novel they are the two experienced fighters accompanying Billy and Weary.
“Weary's version of the Three Musketeers had been to save Billy's life many times, and the scouts' lives, too.”
- moralnounChapter 5 →
A lesson or guiding principle that a story is meant to teach the reader. The Tralfamadorians say their books contain no moral because all moments simply exist without cause or lesson.
“There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects.”
- marvelousadjectiveChapter 5 →
Causing wonder and delight; extraordinarily impressive or beautiful. The Tralfamadorians use it to describe the many rich moments they experience simultaneously in their books.
“What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”
- plunderingverbChapter 10 →
Stealing goods from a place, especially during or after a war or disaster. Edgar Derby is formally charged with this crime for taking a teapot from the ruins of Dresden.
“He was arrested for plundering. He was tried and shot.”
- catacombsnounChapter 10 →
Underground tunnels or chambers, originally used as burial places. In the novel the word refers to the underground passages and cellars beneath the ruins of Dresden.
“Edgar Derby was caught with a teapot he had taken from the catacombs.”
- corner-bracenounChapter 6 →
A diagonal support beam fixed across the corner of a structure to keep it rigid. Billy lies against one inside the cramped, crowded boxcar carrying the POWs.
“Billy was lying at an angle on the corner-brace, and he was staring into the liquid geometry of the boxcar's interior.”
- liquid geometryphraseChapter 6 →
A dreamlike, shifting pattern of shapes — here the tangle of faces, feet, and belongings inside the boxcar — that seems to flow and change like a liquid rather than staying fixed.
“Billy was lying at an angle on the corner-brace, and he was staring into the liquid geometry of the boxcar's interior—the faces, the feet, the bundled possessions.”
- grudgenounChapter 8 →
A lasting feeling of resentment or anger toward someone who has caused harm. Paul Lazzaro nurses a bitter, long-held grudge against those he holds responsible for Roland Weary's death.
- wangnounChapter 8 →
A vulgar slang term for a penis. Vonnegut uses it bluntly and comically to describe Billy's anatomy in the Tralfamadorian zoo.
“He had a tremendous wang, incidentally. You never know who'll get one.”
- mineralsnounChapter 8 →
Non-living inorganic substances — stone, metal, ash — that make up the earth. Vonnegut uses the word to say Dresden was reduced to nothing organic or human, only dead matter.
“Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot.”
- timbersnounChapter 7 →
Large, heavy pieces of wood used as structural beams in buildings. After the firebombing, burnt timbers are among the wreckage scattered across the ruined city.
“It was like the moon up there, with fat and burnt timbers and iron and brick and dead people everywhere.”
- fractured skullphraseChapter 7 →
A broken or cracked bone in the head, a serious injury caused by a violent impact. Billy suffers this injury when the optometrists' plane crashes into the mountain.
- fatalisticadjective
Accepting that all events are predetermined and that humans are powerless to change them. The Tralfamadorians hold this view and pass it on to Billy, who stops resisting or mourning anything.
- POWnounChapter 1 →
Short for Prisoner of War — a soldier captured and held by the enemy during a conflict. Vonnegut and Billy are both POWs held by the Germans in Dresden.
- assassinationnounChapter 10 →
The deliberate murder of a prominent public figure, usually for political reasons. Vonnegut refers to the killings of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. as part of the violent backdrop of 1968.
“Robert Kennedy, whose summer it was, was shot two nights after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.”
- firing squadnounChapter 10 →
A group of soldiers ordered to shoot a condemned person simultaneously as a form of execution. Edgar Derby is killed this way by the Germans for stealing a teapot.
- Poo-tee-weetChapter 10 →
The sound a bird makes, rendered phonetically. Vonnegut ends the novel with it to suggest that after catastrophic destruction, nature's meaningless chirping is the only response left.
“Poo-tee-weet?”
Slaughterhouse-FiveNovel by Kurt Vonnegut