Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 5, Section 11 Summary

  • Now that the Americans have all been tagged, the Red Cross will be able to inform their families that they are (a) prisoners, and (b) still alive.
  • Billy is walking next to Paul Lazzaro, who promised Weary he would get revenge on Billy for Weary's death.
  • Next to Lazzaro is Edgar Derby, who will be shot at the end of the war.
  • A guard tells them to halt.
  • They stop outside a long shed with tin chimneys, which are giving off smoke.
  • The door to the shed opens and the prisoners hear English voices singing "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" from Gilbert and Sullivan's light opera The Pirates of Penzance.