Slaughterhouse-Five

The German soldiers are ordered to round up any wandering or wounded Americans. They are a mix of older men and teenagers like Billy and Weary. They have a dog named Princess. Billy notices that the exhausted, cynical corporal in charge of the Germans has polished boots. Billy admires the boots. He catches the eye of the youngest German, a 15-year-old “blond angel” (31). Gunshots in the distance reveal that the two American soldiers who ditched Billy and Weary have been shot. The Germans take Weary’s expensive weapons and equipment. The two sides do not speak each other’s language.

Billy and Weary are taken to a stone cottage where 20 other Americans are detained. No one talks. Billy sleeps and travels through time again. He is in 1967 in his optometrist’s office where he worries about his mental health. Occasionally, he falls asleep at work and he forgets his own age. As he sits in his office, Billy hears a siren. He closes his eyes and awakes again in the stone cottage. A German tells him to get up and move. The Germans take photographs of the captured Americans to use in propaganda materials.

As Billy is made to pose for photographs, his mind slips out of time again.