Slaughterhouse-Five: Chapter 5

In this chapter Billy spends alot of time with the Tralfamadorians and gets a first hand view into their world. He tries to explain to us "earthlings" what seeing in the fourth dimension looks like. I find Billy's description of the fourth dimension intersting and quite plausible. Tralfamadorians see the past, present and future all at once, for example, humans are composed of all the stages of their lives when a Tralfamadorian looks at them.

For the first time in the book we meet Billy's friend and the war veterant's hospital, Eliot Rosewater. Rosewater introduces Billy to the author Kilgore Trout who writes about all kinds of extraterrestrial activity and the supernatural. His science fiction books are especially appealing to Billy because of his experiences with the Tralfamadorians and the fourth dimension. I think it makes Billy feel as though there is one person who may understand what he has been going through and he instantly becomes an avid Kilgore Trout reader. His friend Rosewater seems to be a genuine friend because they both like the same theme of literature and are going through very similar experiences.

Both Billy and Rosewater went to the hospital to find the excitement in life that they had lost. People with such a big factor in common are bound to get along well. If anything they both think similaryly if they like the ideas of Trouts books. I think that for once Billy felt like some one understood what he was talking about or atleast bothered to listen. Maybe because of Rosewater's friend Billy decided to keep living but I think that Eliot Rosewater was a significant person in Billy's life.