Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Essay - 1288 Words

Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five depicted that war is not going to be ever justified because innocent lives are always compromised. The text has three themes: the destructiveness of war, the illusion of free will and inevitable death. Destructiveness of War For the setting of the story, Dresden was juxtaposed Trafalmador. The former was hell on Earth and the latter, heaven. After Dresden was bombed and the soldiers emerge out of a slaughterhouse, Dresden was devastated. According to Vonnegut, it was clear that the intention was to kill everyone in Dresden. The civilians were supposed to all end up dying or the design will be considered at flaw. The total number of people who died in Dresden was 135,000, which is double the†¦show more content†¦However, there is a reason for this, which the author provided. In the first chapter, Vonnegut writes, It is so jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre (Vonnegut 19). Vonnegut is so overwhelmed by the horrors of war that he doubts his ability to write about them (Slaughterhouse 265). Later in the book, even Vonnegut included himself as a character of the book because he cannot separate himself for his experiences of war horrors. Now Billy a nd the rest were being marched into the ruins by their guards. I was there. OHare was there. Wee had spent the past two nights in the blind innkeepers stable. Authorities had found us there (Vonnegut 181). This shift in tense showed that the author is not merely telling the story of Billy Pilgrims, but Vonneguts as well (Harris 274). As one critic explains, Billy thus becomes a dual persona, a mask not only for Vonnegut-as-character, but for Vonnegut the author as well. Vonnegut has removed himself at least twice from the painful Dresden experience (Harris 274). By narrating the story, Vonnegut addresses and comes to terms with his own horrific war experiences. To depict the horrors of war, Vonnegut made use of a straightforward style as well as black humor to show the absurdity of war. By using this straightforward style, Vonnegut pushed his readers to see war for what it is, with no embellishments or romanticism.Show MoreRelatedSlaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut534 Words   |  2 PagesSome people may think the novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a failure. In fact, Kurt Vonnegut himself calls it a failure. A lot of people disagree with that, many think that Slaughterhouse Five is one of Vonneguts best novels. They say it is the most successful book they have ever read, just for reasons of the author himself. From him being bluntly honest, to his great wit. So if it is such a failure in his eyes, why did he write it, what was his purpose, and why was it even publishedRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1458 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Barry Sadler singer of the song Ballad of the Green Beret and novelist Kurt Vonnegut maintain comparable tones regarding their literature pieces representing the war and the underlying image that is portrayed by the Green Beret. Sadler insightfully states that the impacts that committed soldiers fought through and the sacrifices their families had endured: represents honor, courage, and is described as jingoistic. It is an exceptionallyRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut1560 Words   |  7 Pages Slaughterhouse-five strives to remember the tragedy of the bombing of Dresden. Kurt Vonnegut constructs his novel around a main character who becomes â€Å"unstuck in time† (23). Billy Pilgrim’s life is told out of order, which gives him a different perspective than the rest of the world. Billy lives through his memories, and revisits events in his life at random times and without warning. Vonnegut introduces Billy Pilgrim to the Tralfamadorian way of thinking about memory and time so that he can copeRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1997 Words   |  8 PagesKurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse-Five, is full of historical context, scientific-fiction themes, modernistic themes, and even emphasizes the idea of free will. But Vonnegut’s novel contains one major theme of the destructiveness of war making the book anti-war. Vonnegut uses a variety of techniques to allude to this theme and he does it well. The combination of his writing style and his use of humor to degrade the human in the event of war is highly effective in the fact that it causes the readerRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1348 Words   |  6 PagesSince the last time I wrote a journal, I started and finished Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and started Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five had a total of 275 pages, and Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves has a total of 854 pages, however, I am currently on page 50. Slaughterhouse-Five is a piece of historical fiction that explores the hardships of war, the odd simplicity of death, and the confusing topic of time. The novel stars Billy Pilgrim, a physically weak and strangeRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut3749 Words   |  15 PagesMario Peà ±a Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut â€Å" ‘Is it an anti-war book?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I guess.’ ‘You know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing anti-war books?’ ‘No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?’ ‘I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’† (Vonnegut 4). 1. The author Kurt Vonnegut and a filmmaker, Harrison Starr, converse in this passage, which introduces the topic of Slaughterhouse-Five. In which Starr makes fun of Vonnegut’s idea for planning on making Slaughterhouse-FiveRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1242 Words   |  5 PagesSlaughterhouse Five, a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut, depicts unchronological and sometimes nonsensical moments of the life of Billy Pilgrim as he â€Å"become[s] unstuck in time†(Vonnegut S. Five 23) Billy has no control over where he will end up next. â€Å"He has seen his birth and death many times, and he pays random visits to all the events in between†, and â€Å"is in a constant state of fright, ... because he never knows which part of his life he is going to have to act out next.†(Vonnegut S. Five 23)Read MoreSlaughterhouse Five, By Kurt Vonnegut941 Words   |  4 Pageslargely fatal events, the survivors reflect upon the unbearable guilt and emotions they have experienced. Billy Pilgrim, the main protagonist In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, serves as Vonnegut’s vehicle to communicate his feelings and contemplations as a survivor. Throughout the story, Pilgrim, or the reader encounters an animal that Vonnegut uses to convey the range of emotions and incidents that humans are subject to as a result of war. In the novel, a mysterious dog resides alongsideRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1154 Words   |  5 PagesTaylor Holmes In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut presents a framed narrative voiced through an unreliable narrator that stimulates the presence of universal and empirical truths. (Introducton?) The juxtaposition of predestination with the exercise of free will is an age-old question. In the pagan world, prior to the upsurge of Western development and Christianity, predestination was deemed a truth; pagan gods were superlative and dictated the lives and fates of subordinate humans. AroundRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1050 Words   |  5 PagesLauren Farrell Mrs. Worthington AP ELA 4 30 November 2014 Free Will Through his novel, Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut poses an ancient question: Are we masters of our destiny, or are we simply pawns of fate? The medium through which Mr. Vonnegut presents this riddle is death. Death is the central point to which all action in the book connects. The story is primarily about the death of 135,000 German civilians in the bombing of Dresden narrated by Billy Pilgrim, a man who experiences death from