Slaughter house - five Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Billy Pilgrim

A meek optometrist from Ilium, New York, who has come unstuck in time and drifts through war, zoo captivity, and family life without resistance. He wants nothing, which is exactly what makes him unbearable to men like Roland Weary, and he dies on schedule in 1976, having seen it coming.

Appears in:: Part 2: Unstuck in Time; Part 3: Prisoners and the Zoo; Part 4: The Moon and the Bird
Themes:: War is fought by children; Time and fatalism; Death as an ordinary event; Free will as an illusion

Kurt Vonnegut (the narrator)

A former Dresden POW who spent decades failing to write about the firebombing until he promised Mary O'Hare he would write about babies, not heroes. He frames the book, admits it is jumbled, and leaves himself and O'Hare as the only survivors.

Appears in:: Part 1: A Duty-Dance with Death
Themes:: The impossibility of writing about a massacre

Roland Weary

A cruel, fantasy-prone antitank gunner who casts himself as a heroic savior after the scouts abandon him. He dies of gangrene in a boxcar, blaming Billy, and his dying grudge sets Billy's death in motion decades later.

Appears in:: Part 2: Unstuck in Time; Part 3: Prisoners and the Zoo
Themes:: Time and fatalism; Death as an ordinary event

Paul Lazzaro

A small, frail, vengeful prisoner who swears to Weary that Billy will die for his death. He is the book's one man of follow-through, and he keeps his promise in 1976.

Appears in:: Part 3: Prisoners and the Zoo; Part 4: The Moon and the Bird

Valencia Merble

Billy's large, sweet wife, whose father's money made Billy rich. She dies of carbon monoxide poisoning rushing to the hospital after his plane crash, asking 'How's Billy?'

Appears in:: Part 2: Unstuck in Time; Part 4: The Moon and the Bird
Themes:: Death as an ordinary event

Also in the story

Supporting characters

Montana Wildhack

A pornographic film star kidnapped and displayed in the Tralfamadorian zoo beside Billy. She becomes his mate in the geodesic dome, the closest thing the book offers to a love story.

Appears in:: Part 3: Prisoners and the Zoo

Bertram Copeland Rumfoord

A history professor writing a book about Dresden, sharing Billy's hospital room. He insists the bombing was necessary and dismisses Billy's presence as irrelevant, until Billy says, 'I was there.'

Appears in:: Part 4: The Moon and the Bird

Howard W. Campbell Jr.

An American Nazi propagandist in a uniform of his own design who visits the POW camp to recruit Americans to fight for Germany against the Russians. He wrote a monograph on the sexual behavior of American prisoners.

Appears in:: Part 4: The Moon and the Bird

Eliot Rosewater

A wealthy fellow veteran in Billy's 1948 mental ward who hands Billy his first Kilgore Trout novels. He tells Billy that Trout's books help him understand life, and that the same author will become Billy's favorite too.

Appears in:: Part 3: Prisoners and the Zoo

Mary O'Hare

Bernard O'Hare's wife, who gets angry when she learns the narrator plans to write about the war, fearing it will glorify it. Her anger, and the phrase 'You were just babies then!', gives the book its subtitle.

Appears in:: Part 1: A Duty-Dance with Death
Themes:: War is fought by children

How they are connected

Key relationships

Billy Pilgrim Roland Weary
He wants nothing, which is exactly what makes him unbearable to men like Roland Weary, and he dies on schedule in 1976, having seen it coming.
Kurt Vonnegut (the narrator)Mary O'Hare
A former Dresden POW who spent decades failing to write about the firebombing until he promised Mary O'Hare he would write about babies, not heroes.
Paul Lazzaro Billy Pilgrim
A small, frail, vengeful prisoner who swears to Weary that Billy will die for his death.
Paul Lazzaro Roland Weary
A small, frail, vengeful prisoner who swears to Weary that Billy will die for his death.
Valencia Merble Billy Pilgrim
Billy's large, sweet wife, whose father's money made Billy rich.
Montana Wildhack Billy Pilgrim
A pornographic film star kidnapped and displayed in the Tralfamadorian zoo beside Billy.
Bertram Copeland Rumfoord Billy Pilgrim
A history professor writing a book about Dresden, sharing Billy's hospital room.
Eliot Rosewater Billy Pilgrim
A wealthy fellow veteran in Billy's 1948 mental ward who hands Billy his first Kilgore Trout novels.

Go deeper

Slaughter house - five themes & symbols

The impossibility of writing about a massacre · War is fought by children · Time and fatalism · Death as an ordinary event

Themes explained

Read the full Slaughter house - five summary

The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.

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