The Plot (Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy
Literature)     With the exception of World War II, Billy’s life
is quite bland. Born in 1922 and drafted in 1940,...  (The
entire section is 436 words.)  Want to Read More?
Slaughterhouse-Five (The Sixties in America)  The Work
Slaughterhouse-Five: Or, The Children’s Crusade, A Duty Dance
with Death, highlights Billy Pilgrim, who, like Vonnegut,
survived the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, by finding refuge
in a meat locker under the slaughterhouse where he was employed
as a prisoner of war. After the war, Pilgrim marries and becomes
a successful optometrist in Ilium, New York; however, he cannot
escape the horror and atrocity of war. Believing himself to be
“unstuck in time,” Billy alternates among his memories of World
War II, his life as a civilian in a world grown desensitized to
violence and brutality, and a rich fantasy life on the planet
Tralfamadore. On display in a Tralfamadorian zoo, Billy is mated
with an Earthling named Montana Wildhack,