chapter five term: point of view

The point of view of the author Vonnegut is very hard to understand early in the novel.  The reader knows that he had experienced the war being explained, but the reader has no idea of his relationship to Billy or any of the other characters.  Early, I had thought that he was Billy and was explaining his life in a war prison.  I realized that he was not part when he described a situation where he was vomiting in the prison and told Billy, "'There they (his brains) go, there they go.'... That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."  This is the first contact we have with Vonnegut identifying himself in the novel.  He has not played a pivotal role in the novel.  The point of view in this story is different from many other novels.  He writes as if he is Billy explaining the events, yet he refers to him in the third person.  He is actually a fellow prisoner of Billy and is writing about his life.  Being an omniscient narrator, Vonnegut has the ability to relay all thoughts to the readers to help understand Billy's life.