Pilgrim feels as he skips uncontrollably through his life. There is little suspense in the novel. The outline of Billy's life is given right off the bat. What is more important is the fact and experience of Billy's, of his dazed wandering through the events of his life.
             How are we to understand Billy's time travel? Should we believe it? Is this science fiction? Or a true story? Should we trust his sensible daughter, who thinks that her father is losing his marbles? After all, Billy first comes unstuck at a moment when he is ready to die. He is exhausted, clueless, and lost behind enemy lines. He has no idea what is happening or what has happened. People keep shooting at him, pushing him around. Under these conditions his understanding of time is permanently altered and his mind becomes (temporally) unhinged.
             Human dignity in a life marked by death and mass murder is important to Slaughterhouse Five. In the first stages of his war experience, Billy Pilgrim is a man without dignity.
             Chapter Four introduces the Tralfamadorian concept of time, a concept that will be explained in Chapter Five. This is what Billy Pilgrim is given to understand: "that people, Tralfamadorians, and everything else are like bugs in amber. They are locked into their fate. &apos
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