A Rushing Death

In the first part of chapter nine is Valencia, desperate because she has been told that her husband can die or if he survives he most probably will become a vegetable. This specific situation shows how in the most anguishing times you must remain calm. There is a reason for when flight attendants say that of an emergency you must remain calm. That is the first thing they say because if you let yourself guide by your emotions, you can end up like Valencia. If you see; Valencia had no risk at all of dying because: she wasn't sick, nobody wanted her dead and she wasn't a potential victim of any other risk that a normal citizen is forced to take, yet she killed herself with carbon monoxide poisoning for God's sake! I bet she could've imagined dying in many ways except from this one. If she at least had gone out of the car to see what exactly had happened to her car she might've noticed that the bumper was no longer attached to the car but "… she put her car in gear and crossed the median divider, leaving her exhaust system behind"(p.183). Because of the lack of an exhaust system, the car had lost the correct way of the disposal of the gases created in the engine therefore when it stopped the interior of the car got invaded by gases.

Another thing that pointed out to me is that heading towards the end of the chapter, when Billy went into the bookstore. When Billy looks at Kilgore Trout's books, he notices that they have to do with alien things, like a Trafamadorian message that they want him to see. Also when he is in the adult section of the bookstore he sees a movie about Montana Wildhack. In the movie she is in an alien zoo. This confirms my theory that the Tralfamadorians wanted to send him a message. The message probably was that he had to go to the radio station and say what he said about Montana Wildhack and Trafamadore. Vonnegut may also use this to make the reader realize that Billy is completely insane, that Tralfamadorians don't even exist and that this Trafamadorian view of going on an infinite journey in time is just all in Billy's head.