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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. Which person dies on the railroad trip in Germany?

2. What does Vonnegut tell his sons about massacres?

3. What happened when Lot's wife looked back on Sodom and Gomorrah?

4. What name does Roland Weary give to the group of lost soldiers?

5. What surprised the British officers most about the American prisoners?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why is Billy afraid to drop down from the railroad car?

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

4. What does the story of Sodom and Gomorrah have to do with Vonnegut's book about Dresden?

5. What did Kurt Vonnegut learn about the bombing of Dresden when he wrote to the Air Force for details?

6. Where does Billy time travel to when the spaceship hits a time warp?

7. How does Billy describe the Tralfamadorans?

8. When does Billy Pilgrim first experience being unstuck in time?

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

10. Describe the structure of a Tralfamadoran novel.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Slaughterhouse-Five an historical fiction or a science fiction? Write an essay defining each genre and answering this question. Use examples from the text to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

Write a personal essay, explaining your view of death and/or the afterlife. Describe the basis of your views. Did they come from your family, your religion, popular culture, or from a specific source?

Essay Topic 3

How does luck figure into Billy's Pilgrim's life? Is he a lucky person or an unlucky person? Use examples from the novel to argue your thesis.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 519 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample