Slapstick

In pages 30-60, Vonnegut mainly writes about the childhood of Daffodil Swain, the main character.  Swain and his identical twin sister were born with an odd set of features, such as abnormally large heads and six toes and fingers.  People didn't believe that the twins would live past sixteen, but they actually turned out to be very intelligent humans.  Daffodil and his sister would act like they were mentally challenged in front of people for humor, but in private, they would read books and self-educate themselves.  People finally discovered that the Swain twins were actually quite brilliant when the twins were caught reading sophisticated books in the family library.  

In the opening sentence of chapter 6, Vonnegut writes: "Perhaps some people are really born unhappy."  I think that this sentence relates to both the book and Vonnegut's life.  In the prologue, Vonnegut's childhood is often described as "sad" or "unhappy."  This is interesting because Vonnegut also stated that "Slapstick" was the closest thing he would write to a biography of his life.  I think this quote shows a lot about Daffodil Swain's depressed character in "Slapstick," and also that Vonnegut is not naturally a happy person in his life.