This paper is an exploration of Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), an early document of American postmodern literature. In particular, this paper attempts to present the critical discussions surrounding this novel as equidistant to the broader theoretical discussions surrounding the concept of postmodernism. My contention is that, in discussing this novel, due in part to the natural teleological and linear tendencies of literary criticism, and despite the professed openness of postmodern thought to conflict, diligent efforts must be made to periodically reassert collapsed possibilities in literature. With this in mind, I approach Slaughterhouse-Five in an effort to, first, demonstrate how critics have diminished the potential meaning of each novel in imposing their own notions of a literary-historical trajectory, and, second, how readings of marginalized characters in this novel can reveal untapped potential for further exploration of the broadest definitions of the project of postmodernism.