Comparing Humanity In Kurt Vonnegut's And Tim O Brien

Slaughterhouse of Humanity: The Coldness They Carried
Often war are entangled with the perception of humanity, but what does it mean to be human? It cannot be fully encompassed by a definition in a Merriam Webster dictionary, or by the opinion of an English Professor. Humanity is defined by the individual, and so the focus here is on the Kurt Vonnegut's, and Tim O’Brien’s definition of humanity, which is characterized by human spirit, heart, and empathy.
In Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried both Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O'Brien describe the destruction of humanity caused by war. However, Vonnegut highlights how powerless in war leads to decimation of humanity within a solider, while O'Brien highlights the struggle to retain humanity
in war-torn society in which it's been demolished.
Within Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut provides commentary on how war warps humanity through Billy Pilgrim. Billy’s experience embody how Vonnegut felt in war: powerless. Vonnegut express the extent of these feelings when he states, “Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.” Vonnegut shows how powerlessness in war is a gateway to becoming detached from humanity when in order to cope with his powerlessness, Billy adopts the Tralfamadorian mentality. He comes to believe that fate determines the course of each individual’s life , that a “moment is structured” a certain way, and thus free will is non-existence, allowing Billy to remove any sense of responsibility and guilt from himself for even his own actions.
Billy’s acceptance of his lack of control leads him to be indifferent towards hardships as he believes they are destined to occur.
By accepting that fate as an absolute force that puppeteers the world - “all time. . . .does not change”- he loses his humanity, and becomes apathetic. Hence why all other character’s in Vonnegut's novel are flat and lack depth, because from Billy's perspective they do not matter, their death is imminent, thus he remains numb to the human condition by saying “so it goes.” Vonnegut symbolically convey Billy’s loss of humanity by having him embrace the ideals of the Tralfamadorian, an alien race, and rejecting the mentality of of humans(humanity). Vonnegut also conveys the destruction of his own humanity through the recurrence of “mustard gas and roses.” The scent is associated with corpses in Vonnegut’s novel and thus his breath also retaining that scent is representative of his loss of spirit; war killed Vonnegut’s humanity, and so his breath smells like death. Vonnegut vanished his humanity as a coping mechanism. This is evident when he associates humanity with self-destruction stating “But she did look back. . . it was so human” , however, “she was turned to a pillar of salt.” Vonnegut believes having humanity and compassion for others is not worthwhile, which is further supported in his statement “People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.” And so within Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut portrays the effects war has on the humanity of the individual, who becomes enveloped in inhumane
apathy. O’Brien also discusses humanity, but differs in his approach from Vonnegut as he laments the struggle to maintain humanity in the culture of war which is plagued by inhumanity.
O’Brien expresses the fight to maintain humanity as war within a war as war culture gradually strips O’Brien, along with the other soldiers, of “any heart or real emotion.” O’Brien bemoans this when he describes that the war “had swallowed so much. My best friend. My pride. My belief in myself as a man of some small dignity and courage.” Through his writing O’Brien asserts that war destroys the human soul. This is evident in the “The Man I Killed” in which O’Brien illustrates the life of a boy filled with hope, innocence, who wanted nothing to do with the war, whose life O'Brien characterizes as “a constellation of possibilities,” yet the war killed him. Through the literal death of spirit depict in this story, O’Brien coveys the figurative death of empathy, ambition, vitality, all thing that comprise the human spirit and humanity, with war being the murderer. Humanity’s death is further display, when after having killed the aforementioned man O’Brien is told, “pull your shit together.” Because hardships and death is viewed as formalities of war, soldiers are expected to maintain “masks of composure,” and thus holding onto humanity is nearly impossible as O’Brien explains “it was hard to find any real emotion. It simply wasn't there. . . .I'd seemed to grow cold inside, all the illusions gone, all the old ambitions and hopes for myself sucked away into the mud.”
O’Brien teaches us that war forever deprives people of who they were as O’Brien coveys through Mary Ann. As she's consumed by war, she becomes lifeless with “no sense of the person” inside her. O’Brien also describes losing himself to war: “There were times in my life when I couldn't feel much, not sadness or pity or passion, and somehow I blamed this place for what I had become, and I blamed it for taking away the person I had once been.” Humanity defines an individual, as it's what being human means to them, and when that is taken away, there is nothing left. And like any experience in war it scares people as O’Brien explains “that coldness had never entirely disappeared.” Therefore, O’Brien condemns wars greatest atrocity: the slaughter of humanity.
So even though Vonnegut and O’Brien both illustrate the obliteration of humanity in war, both assert differing opinions of it. Vonnegut believes in neglecting humanity during war as he views it only as a source of anguish, and so Billy abandons humanity as a coping mechanism. While on the other hand, O’Brien believing in preserving one’s humanity during because it defines who we are and without it we lose sight of what matters,and it turns us empty and heartless.