Schlachthof-Fünf

In chapter seven of Slaughterhouse Five Billy, miraculously, is the only one that survives the plane crash with the copilot. When the plane crashes Billy's skull is hit and fractured. When his is practically dying in the snow, some ski instructors from a resort nearby come to the site. One of them saw him half alive and thought he was saying his last words. Billy thought the instructor had something to do with World War II and "he whispered to him his address: 'Schlachthof-fünf´" (P. 156 Vonnegut)

I personally took the time to find a translation to what he said. It actually means Slaughter-house five. He clearly spoke in German so I found the translation in internet. In the story he spoke in German because as stated before, he thought the ski instructor was a soldier or someone who had something to do with World War II. He finally survived and he was taken to a small private hospital and attended by a famous brain surgeon. Billy remained unconscious for two days "and dreamed millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time travel" (P.157 Vonnegut). The last part made me realize that Billy is having dreams of his own life and like any other person, while dreaming, can make things that are total fantasy look true. So this passage suggests that the time traveling that has been happening over and over again are just dreams of the past Billy has had. It would also give an explanation to Tralfamadore and it is the following: it´s just simply a crazy idea that went through Billy's head because the book said that of the million things he dreamt of only some of them were true. So he could've dreamt in other parts of the book and invented Tralfamadore. Billy didn't need a very elaborate thought to invent Trafamadore because in the book it says that he just spent a few earthling seconds in Tralfamadore.