Slaughterhouse-Five - Part II Trivia Quiz

Answer: American Bombers in World War II

Vonnegut's description is fantastic: "American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen.

They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation." (And so on.)

Answer: True

He woke up on his daughter's wedding night, and knowing that he had an hour to kill before the flying saucer arrived, watched a movie backwards and forwards, a trick reserved for those who have become unstuck in time.

Answer: "Any questions?"

While "What is your name?" is a more traditional get-to-know-you first question, he was actually asked if he had any questions. Billy's reply was "Why me?"

Answer: Gangrene

He died on the train of gangrene that had infected his feet, mangled by the wooden clogs he was given by his captors in an involuntary exchange for his boots. The train was taking the Americans to a prison camp that specialized in the extermination of Russian POWs.

Answer: Tralfamadorian Literature

They read the passages all at once instead of one after another. There's no relationship among the different passages of a book "except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep".

Answer: Cinderella

The narrator describes it as "the most popular story ever told." He also points out that all the parts were obviously played by men, which caused quite a bit of laughter among those watching.

Answer: A giraffe

He was a giraffe among other giraffes that accepted him as their own. Several female giraffes kissed him. They had lips that they were able to shape like bugles.

Answer: Science Fiction

Eliot Rosewater was in for alcoholism and kept a massive collection of science fiction books under his bed. Rosewater, who had shot a 14-year-old fireman in the war, and Billy, who had witnessed the bombing of Dresden, both were in the hospital voluntarily and found comfort in the stories of far away places.

Answer: Cover his head

He would always become much sicker during her visits. "She upset Billy simply by being his mother."

Answer: A zoo exhibit

He was on display under a dome, sitting naked in a lounge chair as the alien zoo-goers gaped at him.

Answer: "About as happy as I was on Earth."

This was at the zoo of Tralfamadore. The zoo guide would speak to the gawkers telepathically (they had no voice boxes) and relay any questions they had to Billy by means of keyboard.

Answer: 5

Each sex was "necessary in the creation of a new individual." Billy didn't notice the difference between the sexes, because the physical differences were all rendered in the fourth dimension.

Answer: 7

Again, each was necessary for reproduction to take place. Billy could not imagine what the seven sexes were, since the Tralfamadorians saw these things in the fourth dimension.

Answer: All of these

There could be reproduction, however, without female homosexuals and men over 65. As the narrator says: "It was gibberish to Billy."

Answer: How time looked to Billy

The only one of these mentioned that we are told confounded the aliens was how time looked to Billy. As for war, the Tralfamadorians have suffered through those, too.