Chapter 5 Summary

Tralfamadorans do not see stars as points of light. Instead, they see where all the stars have been and where they are going, like "luminous spaghetti" (87). They see humans as millipedes "with babies' legs on one end and old people's legs on the other" (87).

Billy requests something to read on the flying saucer. The only Earth book they have is The Valley of the Dolls. He asks for a Tralfamadoran novel, but he cannot read it. The aliens explain that it is actually just a series of events that, when read simultaneously as a Tralfamadoran can, show the depth and breadth of life.

Billy falls back in time to his family's trip to the Grand Canyon. Billy is afraid of it. When his mother touches him, he wets his pants. Someone asks a ranger how many people kill their selves in the Canyon...