Part I-Introduction

Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who has come "unstuck in time." At any point in his life, he may find himself sud­denly at another point in his past or future. Billy's experiences as an American prisoner of war in Ger­many during World War II are told in more or less chronological order, but these events are continu­ally interrupted by Billy's travels to various other times in his life.

At several points in the novel, including the whole of Chapter One, Vonnegut addresses the reader directly. In the opening chapter, the author mentions his own real-life experiences as a pris­oner of war-in particular, his witnessing of the Allied firebombing of the German City of Dres­den-and discusses the difficulties he had over the years in writing about his war experiences. He also tells of...