Billy Pilgrim knew that he was going to be kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians on the night of his daughters wedding. Billy could not sleep that night so he went downstairs to watch a movie and wait for the flying saucer. The movie that came on was about American bombers in World War 2, but Billy didn't see the movie forwards, he saw the whole movie backwards. Billy describes all of the events in the movie happening in reverse. I thought this was interesting for a veteran to experience because it is kind of like imagining a war being undone, while I would think that a veteran would watch a war movie and just connect with it on a totally different level than other people.

This is how Billy described the movie, "The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes" (Vonnegut 74). This quote talks about the reverse action of Germans shooting Allies and Allied planes. This could show that Billy does not believe that war brings peace, and that without war there would be true peace. Later in the book Billy asks the Tralfamadors how they live in absolute peace, and their answer was that they just look past any time with bad events. This again relates to the Tralfamadorians concept of time and how there is no order to things, so in theory they can just look at the happy moments in life.

Do you think that this quote could have a different meaning? Do you also think that Billy believes in true peace?