In the first chapter of Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut explains the process of how his book came to be. He provides insight to why he wanted to write this book and explains that "all [of] this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true." (Vonnegut, 1). The author talks about how he fought in Dresden, and that it is hard for him to recall events that took place. He knows this though, and that is the war was scary and corrupted many peoples lives. Vonnegut searches for an old war friend of his and together they use time travel to discuss ideas for the book.