Slaughterhouse Five (Two) Journal - Caitlynn Hancock
The reading for this week was quite interesting. My job this week was to be the Literary Theorist. I have to make connections with the Slaughterhouse Five and to the textbook we are also reading called How to Interpret Literature. The chapter we are reading this week for How to Interpret Literature is called "Deconstruction." Deconstruction has to do with picking apart text to find multiple meanings; not just finding one meaning.
So, during my reading I paid close attention to the text. I came across a very interesting part in the book. many things in chapters three and four really stuck out to me. " He went home for a nap after lunch. He was under doctor's orders to take a nap every day. The doctor hoped that this would relieve a complaint that Billy had: Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy Pilgrim would find himself weeping. Nobody had ever caught Billy doing it." (p. 78)
For some reason, this passage really stuck out to me. It seems almost like it is foreshadowing, but not just foreshadowing. So the doctor just instructs Billy to take a nap every day because he cries, but Billy does have reasons to cry. He time travels and re-lives horrible events over and over that have happened in his life. He has lost his wife and many of the events that Billy revisits, his wife is present or dying.
One other thing in this text that makes me question is that on page 83 it reads, "There was so much to see-- dragon's teeth, killing machines, corpses with bare feet that were blue and ivory." This is interesting because in the later chapter he makes that same reference to his own feet. "He looked down at his bare feet. They were ivory and blue." (p. 92) In reference to the text How to Interpret Literature, to deconstruct this theory. Many people may not think anything of this. some may think that he is just saying his feet are cold, but I think that since he made that same reference to corpses earlier that this relates to death.
This is the same time travel when he gets taken away by aliens. There is another reference to how the "...champagne was dead." (p. 93). Some may think that the instance where he gets kidnapped by the aliens is just a time travel and that it is actually happening, but i think that some how something happened that made all of this happen because the aliens wanted him to realize what his life really was. The aliens make many references to being "Trapped in another blob of amber..." They also make a reference that they are in a time warp. I think that Billy is being forced to time travel because of the aliens. They did this to him because the aliens say that "Earthlings" are free-willed. Now, Billy Pilgram is not free willed because of having to re-live his past.
The connection that I made with this reading was more with the alien part of the chapters. Our world has so many superstitions about aliens and how they abduct people and all of that. The movie i made a connection with was "Signs." Not that these aliens are walking around in this book, but I do believe that they are changing how Billy thinks in this book.
So, during my reading I paid close attention to the text. I came across a very interesting part in the book. many things in chapters three and four really stuck out to me. " He went home for a nap after lunch. He was under doctor's orders to take a nap every day. The doctor hoped that this would relieve a complaint that Billy had: Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy Pilgrim would find himself weeping. Nobody had ever caught Billy doing it." (p. 78)
For some reason, this passage really stuck out to me. It seems almost like it is foreshadowing, but not just foreshadowing. So the doctor just instructs Billy to take a nap every day because he cries, but Billy does have reasons to cry. He time travels and re-lives horrible events over and over that have happened in his life. He has lost his wife and many of the events that Billy revisits, his wife is present or dying.
One other thing in this text that makes me question is that on page 83 it reads, "There was so much to see-- dragon's teeth, killing machines, corpses with bare feet that were blue and ivory." This is interesting because in the later chapter he makes that same reference to his own feet. "He looked down at his bare feet. They were ivory and blue." (p. 92) In reference to the text How to Interpret Literature, to deconstruct this theory. Many people may not think anything of this. some may think that he is just saying his feet are cold, but I think that since he made that same reference to corpses earlier that this relates to death.
This is the same time travel when he gets taken away by aliens. There is another reference to how the "...champagne was dead." (p. 93). Some may think that the instance where he gets kidnapped by the aliens is just a time travel and that it is actually happening, but i think that some how something happened that made all of this happen because the aliens wanted him to realize what his life really was. The aliens make many references to being "Trapped in another blob of amber..." They also make a reference that they are in a time warp. I think that Billy is being forced to time travel because of the aliens. They did this to him because the aliens say that "Earthlings" are free-willed. Now, Billy Pilgram is not free willed because of having to re-live his past.
The connection that I made with this reading was more with the alien part of the chapters. Our world has so many superstitions about aliens and how they abduct people and all of that. The movie i made a connection with was "Signs." Not that these aliens are walking around in this book, but I do believe that they are changing how Billy thinks in this book.
Hi Caitlynn,
ReplyDeleteI think you make some great observations here. In terms of connecting your reading of the story to the deconstruction chapter, think about your example of the soldiers' feet. First consider how the feet are symbolic because they fit in a larger symbolism about feet as trope in literature. A deconstruction reading might take this same passage and consider how this might not be true because of multiple interpretations you point to. Thus, even though you might see the reference of feet as symbolic of death, think also about the multitude of possibilities feet could symbolize.
Hi Caitlynn,
ReplyDeletePlease see the following correction to my last post: "soldiers" should be "casualties."