1. What actually happened in Dresden? To what use does Vonnegut put these events in his story? What views of America can we see in the novel? Is Vonnegut endorsing one or more of them? 2. The book begins "All this happened, more or less." Why does the novel begin with a metanarrative chapter describing the author’s life and the process of writing the novel, instead of beginning "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time"?
3. Why does Vonnegut introduce the Tralfamadorians? That is, why did he make his "famous Dresden book" into science fiction? Does the character of Kilgore Trout help us understand this?
4. Why is the novel so fragmented? How does this structure contribute to the meaning of the story?
5. What is the point of the refrain "so it goes"? Why is it repeated so often through the novel?
6. What role does the act of reading play in the novel?