Survival in the Slaughterhouse

In chapter eight, a very paradoxical situation comes up. We had already found the meaning of the book’s title “slaughterhouse Five”, when the American prisoners were brought to Dresden, and kept in the fifth building of a slaughterhouse. By the name alone, you can assume that these slaughterhouses were violent places. They were, in fact, used to butcher animals. The truth though, is that this place kept the soldiers safe during the night that Dresden was bombed. Throughout the entire book, I had assumed that the slaughterhouse represented torture or suppression, rather than safety. It kept Billy and the author of the book alive, and able to tell the story, while millions of Germans died in the bombing. “He was down in the meat locker on the night that Dresden was destroyed. There were sounds like giant footsteps above. Those were sticks of high-explosive bombs. The giants walked and walked. The meat locker was a very safe shelter.” (pg. 177).