Slaughterhouse Five Lesson Plan

Consider this line from Chapter Nine, when Barbara appears in the Vermont hospital to visit Billy after the plane crash:

“But Billy was ten years away, back in 1958.”

Does this line contradict the Tralfamadorian concept of time that Billy experiences? Why or why not? Why might have Vonnegut written it this way?

The question calls upon readers to first explain the Tralfamadorian concept of time: it all exists at once rather than in a linear fashion, the way most humans (other than Billy) experience it. However, students may note that the line above seems to present Billy as actually traveling in time, but that time does not happen all at once. If it were all...