For this discussion, please answer three of the following questions in a full paragraph each (4-6 sentences). Then, respond to a classmate.

1. What role do birds play in the book? Bill, Kilgore Trout’s parakeet, misses his cage when he is freed as he doesn’t know what to do with himself. In addition, all the African Americans in Midland City can imitate birds of the British Empire, a skill they learned from Fred T. Barry's mother. What does this skill mean to them?
2. What drives Dwayne Hoover insane? We are told that he has a chemical imbalance and that it is exacerbated by reading Kilgore Trout’s novel Now It Can Be Told, but are there other causes?
3. What does the book have to say about ownership and private property? Dwayne Hoover owns almost all of Midland City, and the unseen Eliot Rosewater is another wealthy individual who has a disproportionate influence on people’s lives.
4. Why does Vonnegut include details of many of the incidental characters’ personal stories, whether they are consequential to the plot or not? Is this an attempt to make the novel more like real life, where we often come across random information? Does it help flesh out life in Midland City or is it a distraction?
5. What is the narrator’s opinion of America? How does he describe its domestic and foreign policies? What does he think of the government and citizens?
6. How is advertising used in the story? There are many instances of written advertisements (including the names of the trucks in which Kilgore Trout rides to Midland City) and radio advertisements and the title itself is the slogan of a popular cereal. How do various characters react to the advertisements? What do the advertisements say about the power of the written and spoken word?

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