"I, Billy Pilgrim, the tape begins, will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth, 1976." (pg. 141)
The 1986 prompt roughly says, "choose a novel an show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole." Considering Slaughterhouse-Five is nothing but time travel, I thought this prompt was perfect. First, Billy's time-travel, real or fictional, adds an interesting perspective to the story. It allows the reader to be omniscient, unlike the characters. It also gives the reader many different viewpoints of Billy's life. I'm not sure what significance this has on plot, since it was hard to discover exactly what the plot was, thanks to the jumbled order of events. One thing that contributes to the effectiveness, though, is that it portrays Billy as an all-knowing character, automatically elevating his status in the readers' eyes. On the other hand, Billy's reputation is constantly diminished by his army buddies. Another thing it does is create suspense since the reader knows what events are upcoming, but they don't know the circumstances. So I'm not really sure how manipulation of plot helps the effectiveness of the work, but it certainly makes for an interesting story.
The 1986 prompt roughly says, "choose a novel an show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole." Considering Slaughterhouse-Five is nothing but time travel, I thought this prompt was perfect. First, Billy's time-travel, real or fictional, adds an interesting perspective to the story. It allows the reader to be omniscient, unlike the characters. It also gives the reader many different viewpoints of Billy's life. I'm not sure what significance this has on plot, since it was hard to discover exactly what the plot was, thanks to the jumbled order of events. One thing that contributes to the effectiveness, though, is that it portrays Billy as an all-knowing character, automatically elevating his status in the readers' eyes. On the other hand, Billy's reputation is constantly diminished by his army buddies. Another thing it does is create suspense since the reader knows what events are upcoming, but they don't know the circumstances. So I'm not really sure how manipulation of plot helps the effectiveness of the work, but it certainly makes for an interesting story.
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