Chapters 3 & 4

1- Describe the experiences of the prisoners during and after their capture. What is the overall effect of the narrator’s presentation of these events? What themes are suggested by the narrator’s descriptions of the photographer and the men with the “motion-picture camera”?

2- Why do you think Billy experiences the war movie backwards—what is the significance of this way of perceiving it? What significance do you think the references to Adam and Eve in these chapters (Billy’s seeing a vision of them in the German officer’s boots and thinking of them while watching the war movie) have?

3- Describe Billy’s life as a middle-aged man after the war. In his leaps into his future life, what trends and themes do we see? Is there any foreshadowing of these trends during the war?

4-What theme that permeates the novel is suggested by these details from these chapters?