Chapter 10: RHETORICAL QUESTION

In the final chapter, Vonnegut repeats a previous rhetorical question. As Vonnegut ends the novel, a question that appeared in chapter 1 reappears: "One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, "Poo-tee-weet?"" (215). This question first shows up in chapter 1, when Vonnegut is describing a massacre. He says there is no intelligent response to a massacre. The things birds say make no sense, therefore there is no sense in replying. He makes the connection that bird talk makes no sense just as anybody's talk about war. The question, "Poo-tee-weet?" is unanswerable. It is simply a question meant to effect what the reader acquires from the novel.