Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 5, Section 32 Summary

  • So, in this Kilgore Trout novel, the alien gives the people of Earth the gift of a new gospel.
  • In this gospel, Jesus still says all of the beautiful things he says in the other gospels, but he's a nobody; he's not the son of God.
  • So one day, a group of people crucify him and they think they aren't going to be punished for it because he's a nobody.
  • But then, just before Christ dies, the voice of God sounds out.
  • He tells the Earth that he is adopting this nobody, that from now on, Jesus is the Son of the Creator of the Universe forever.
  • And God promises: "From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections" (5.32.3).