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Study Guide

Slaughterhouse-Five Chapter 5, Section 59

By Kurt Vonnegut

Chapter 5, Section 59

It's 1968, and Barbara Pilgrim warns Billy that, if he keeps acting like a child, she is going to treat him like a child.
Barbara also says that it's freezing in his house: the furnace isn't working. Billy says he hadn't noticed.
Barbara shouts that, if they leave Billy alone, he'll freeze or starve to death.
Barbara is enjoying depriving Billy of his dignity in the name of daughterly love.