Slaughterhouse 5 Prewriting and such things...

Please list 10 ways you can improve your essay scores

1. Re-read parts of the book for quotes   6. Double-check my work
2  Do Pre-writing                                      7. Run spell check
3. Take more time                                   8. Use the PIE structure more
4. Focus my writing more                        9. Write a good thesis
5. Read other essays                              10. Participate and pay attention when discussing in class


Please write any 15 thoughts about the book Slaughterhouse-5.  For each thought, please refer to a specific part of the book that generated this thought (for instance, “It was funny” receives no credit; “It was funny when he described the Tralfamadorians” receives full credit).

1. They used vulgar language a lot

2. It was unorganized in an organized matter (i.e. Time traveling was random, but followed a pattern)

3. It had an interesting view of time (nonlinear)

4. There were a lot of small details that fit together well (3 musketeers example)

5. It was interesting how the author thought that in the 70s they'd have laser guns

6. The description of death ("so it goes") seems a bit insensitive (to me at least)

7. I thought it was interesting how Billy was quite devoid of emotion

8. I liked how the author had 3 plots/time lines running at once

9. The Tralfamadorian books were interesting

10. It was interesting how the author wrote about himself writing the book

11. I didn't like how the key climaxes were resolved before they happened

12. It was interesting how, even though this is a war book, they almost never described actual combat.

13. I liked how it gave a new perspective on time travel

14. I thought it was interesting how he kinda used reverse psychology to describe death (by being insensitive it makes it all the more sensitive)

15. I like how you can define the present to be whenever you want


State 5 possible themes for the book Slaughterhouse-5.
1. Death isn't really that important or sad

2. War affects people not only in the war, but after it as well

3. Nothing you can do will change what will happen

4. Focus on the good parts of life

5. Time travel isn't really as good as we may think


Write a conversation between yourself and Billy Pilgrim in which he tries to teach you a lesson based on his own experiences.  You must explain IN DEPTH at least 3 specific events and details from the book in order to receive full credit.  This conversation should go on as long as it takes to demonstrate YOUR UNDERSTANDING of Billy’s experiences.
EXAMPLE:
Billy: Hello, Mr. Cheng
Mr. Cheng: Hi Billy
Billy: Have you heard about Tralfamadore?
Mr. Cheng: No, what’s that?
Billy: It’s a planet where they... etc.
_____________________________


Billy: Hey there
Me: Hey, you're that crazy person from the radio right?
Billy: I'm not crazy, I just know things that others need to know.
Me: like what?
Billy: Get this: when people die, they don't actually cease to exist, because they are still there in the past
Me: ...
Billy: It's like looking at a mountain range; you can see where it ends, but you aren't sad that it ends there because you can see the rest of it also.
Me: but we CAN'T see the past!
Billy: Well, I can. You see, I'm unstuck in time. I wander throughout time rando--- oh hi again!
Me: ...
Billy: I just time traveled back to the war where I was wearing a Toga and a coat as a handwarmer while eating syrup for pregnant people!
Me: you really are crazy... See ya later

Is Siddhartha's interactions with Vasuveda at all like my own life?

In the book Siddhartha, the main character, Siddhartha, goes on a journey to find inner peace, and he finally attains it by talking to the ferryman Vasuveda. However, the teachings that Siddhartha had learned do not really reflect at all what I learned about the same topic. Siddhartha learns from Vasuveda and, strangely enough, the river also, that the concept of time is distorted. In their interaction, Siddhartha says "Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?" (106). What Siddhartha means by this is that the present time is everything, including the future and the past. In other words, a stone is a rock, sand, soil, a tree, and eventually, a fruit, all at once, even though we only see it as a stone. However, I have learned differently. In my experience, it is possible to be something other than what you were, or are going to be. I have made plenty of mistakes in my life, but my past doesn't define me, as Siddhartha was led to believe. I am who I am now, not who I was in the past. What this means is that, instead of me being the accumulation of my past, my present, and my future, I am only who I am at the present moment, and whatever I have done in the past, and whatever I do in the future, can't affect how people see me right now.