Slaughterhouse- 5 The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death

For your writing assignment for Slaughterhouse-Five, you will write your own Tralfamadorian literature - a series of moments: 
“There isn't any particular relationship between all the messages, except that [you have] chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of [your understanding of the book] that is beautiful and surprising and deep.”
In short, you will write five paragraphs about things that happen in the book. They should have some relationship, but you do not need to write a full, cohesive essay that explains them. 
For each moment, you need to summarize, include a significant quote, and explain, interpret, or analyze the moment's significance. Here is a color-coded example of what this should look like: 
Teacher Example: 
Serving as a Chaplain's assistant in the war, Billy played hymns for a congregation of soldiers one Sunday morning. There were theoretical or ‘practice' battles going on at the same time. A man Billy describes as an “umpire” amusedly informs the congregation that they would all have been killed in the theoretical battle. Everyone laughs at this, and they go on to enjoy lunch. Billy reflects on this: “Billy was struck by what a Tralfamadorian adventure with death that had been, to be dead and to eat at the same time” (Vonnegut, 31). This moment is a distinct example of irony because we would expect the soldiers to find the suggestion that they could be dead harrowing, and yet they joke and eat instead. The way that Billy notices the irony as a part of the Tralfamadorian experience emphasizes how the absurd is developed in this novel. 
You must write five moments from across the book, representing five different chapters.
Student Example : 
He was leaning against a tree while in the mists of World War Two and that's when he first became unstuck in time. He first started to go through his life, PASSing his death which was only a violet light. Then went backwards and until he was in pre birth which was red and bubbly. Then he went forward to was he was a little boy taking a shower at the Y.M.C.A with his dad. Billy was scared because his dad is going to teach him how to swim with sink or swim method. “It was like an execution. Billy was numb as his father carried him from the shower room to the pool” (54). This was the first moment he traveled to when he became unstuck in time. This was a terrifying moment for Billy. This moment must of had some meaning or something about this moment that made it the first moment he traveled to. He says “It was like an execution.” He was in the middle of war, scared for his life, then became unstuck in time and traveled back to a moment where he felt like his life was in jeopardy. That could be a big reason why that was his first moment, because he traveled back to a moment were he had the same feeling as he does in the war.