Chapter 4: SIMILE

Slaughterhouse 5 has already had many poetic aspects appear. The most frequent type of poetry has been Vonnegut's similes. A large component of chapter 4 was a rather complex simile. Billy is told that, "All time is all time. It does not change.... Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber" (86). The Tralfamadorian explains that people are are trapped in life's moments like bugs trapped in amber. Billy begins to understand the Tralfamadorian's idea of no free will.