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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What type of book does Vonnegut tell his friend he is writing?

2. Why is Billy taken to the hospital during the play?

3. What is the only book Billy can read on the trip to Tralfamadore?

4. What happens when Billy tries to sleep in the railroad car?

5. How do the Tralfamadorans view time?

Short Essay Questions

1. What parts of Ilium remind Billy of the ruined towns in World War II?

2. Why did Roland Weary start to beat and kick Billy?

3. Why do the soliders not want Billy to sleep near them?

4. Why does Kurt Vonnegut use real information from his life in this book?

5. Why does the author keep reminding the reader that Edgar Derby will die in Dresden?

6. Name some of the places in time that Billy travels to in this chapter.

7. Why does Billy keep a framed copy of the Serenity Prayer in his office?

8. Where does Billy wake up after falling asleep with the other prisoners in the stone cottage?

9. What does Billy extrapolate happening after the end of the war movie he is watching on the night before his daughter's wedding?

10. According to the aliens in Kilgore Trout's book, what is the flaw in the story of Christ?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Roland Weary can be said to personify the typical American war hero, while Billy Pilgrim is anything but. Write an essay comparing these two characters. Which is more heroic?

Essay Topic 2

Research and write a paper describing the bombing of Dresden in 1944.

Essay Topic 3

How does Vonnegut's version of World War II differ from the usual view that we get of the war? Why does he write about this version? Write an essay that analyzes Vonnegut's attitude toward World War II as shown in Slaughterhouse-Five.

(see the answer keys)

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