Chapter 2 Summary

Billy Pilgrim is "unstuck in time" (23). He moves from one moment of his life to another as though they did not happen in any order. He cannot control where he goes next and many of the trips are unpleasant.

Pilgrim is born in 1922 in Ilium, New York. He fights in World War II, goes to the Ilium School of Optometry, has a nervous breakdown, returns to his studies, marries the founder and owner of the school, becomes an optometrist, and makes a lot of money selling frames for safety glasses.

Billy has two children. His daughter marries another optometrist and Billy sets him up in business. His son is a troublemaker in high school, but straightens out in the army, where he becomes a Green Beret in Vietnam. Billy survives a plane crash and his wife is accidentally killed by carbon monoxide poisoning...