What is slaughterhouse-five?
Slaughterhouse-five is a magnificent anti-war novel that shows the horrors of war while underlying a breath-taking theme about life. Billy Pilgrim, a funny-looking orthodontist from Illium, who is caught in World War II, has become unstuck in time. He has no control over where in time he will go next and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He time shifts from before birth, to old age, to during the war, to death, then back again. Billy also gets kidnapped by aliens from Tralfamadore, where he learns where to deal with his becoming unstuck in time and learns that all time is actually happening at once, and humans have the unfortunate ability to only see it from one moment to the next. At first glance, this novel seems random, strange, and possibly meaningless. However, Billy's traveling through time is a metaphor for finding meaning in our fractured lives, as shown by the reappearing theme, "God give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."