An optometrist comes unstuck in time and watches his whole life at once.
Who drives the story
A tall, weak, funny-looking optometrist born in 1922 who becomes unstuck in time. He wants only to live quietly, but war, grief, and aliens keep rearranging his life, and he ends up knowing the date of his own death.
The author himself, a Dresden survivor who opens the book promising Mary O'Hare a war story with no heroes. He frames Billy's story as his own promise kept.
A vengeful fellow POW who promises the dying Roland Weary he will kill Billy Pilgrim. The promise outlives the war by decades.
An older POW who protects Billy from Lazzaro and is elected the men's leader. He survives the firebombing, then is executed for pocketing a trinket from the ruins.
Billy's daughter, angry and embarrassed by his claims about Tralfamadore. She wants her father to act normal; he cannot.
Also in the story
A vengeful, patriotic bully who blames Billy for their capture. He dies of gangrene and passes his grudge to Lazzaro.
Billy's heavy, loving wife, daughter of the optometry school's owner. She dies of carbon monoxide poisoning rushing to the hospital after Billy's plane crash.
Billy's son, a troubled adolescent who vandalizes a Catholic cemetery, reforms, and becomes a Green Beret in Vietnam.
A movie star from Earth placed in the Tralfamadorian zoo as Billy's mate. Afraid at first, she comes to love Billy and names their child Billy Jr.
Bernard O'Hare's wife, who shames the narrator out of writing a glorified war book. Her anger shapes the whole novel.
How they are connected
Kurt Vonnegut (the narrator)Mary O'Hare
The author himself, a Dresden survivor who opens the book promising Mary O'Hare a war story with no heroes.
Kurt Vonnegut (the narrator)Billy Pilgrim
He frames Billy's story as his own promise kept.
A vengeful fellow POW who promises the dying Roland Weary he will kill Billy Pilgrim.
A vengeful fellow POW who promises the dying Roland Weary he will kill Billy Pilgrim.
An older POW who protects Billy from Lazzaro and is elected the men's leader.
An older POW who protects Billy from Lazzaro and is elected the men's leader.
A vengeful, patriotic bully who blames Billy for their capture.
Billy's heavy, loving wife, daughter of the optometry school's owner.
Billy's daughter, angry and embarrassed by his claims about Tralfamadore.
Billy's son, a troubled adolescent who vandalizes a Catholic cemetery, reforms, and becomes a Green Beret in Vietnam.
A movie star from Earth placed in the Tralfamadorian zoo as Billy's mate.
The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
Open the summary