disturbing generations of soldiers. Many novels have been written on the fruits of war, such as All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Marque (1929) and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo (1938). Through the character of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut represents the aftermath of war on soldiers suffering from post-traumatic disorder.
Kurt Vonnegut is from Indianapolis, Indiana, was born in November 1922, and died in April 2007. Vonnegut was enlisted in the US army after studying at Cornell for a couple years and was captured by Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, and was then sent to Dresden, where he became a prisoner of war. Vonnegut survived by working with other prisoners of war making vitamin supplements. When he returned from the war, Vonnegut married his high school girlfriend Jane Marie Cox, who he later divorced. Vonnegut received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and used the money to return to Dresden more than twenty years later to research the occurrences that took place there while he was a prisoner of war (MacFarlane). In 1984, like many other survivors of war, Vonnegut attempted suicide with sleeping pills and alcohol, The beginning and ending of Slaughterhouse-Five are narrated by Vonnegut, showing the reader that there is a true story and purpose behind this story of aliens and time travel. Vonnegut wrote this satirical book as a way of criticizing war and the effects it has on soldiers with irregular accounts of Billy Pilgrim’s experiences. By telling his story and mirroring himself in Billy Pilgrim’s character, he is successful in fulfilling his purpose in making his readers realize how painful and horrific war is, even long after it is over. It took Vonnegut twenty-three years to write Slaughterhouse-Five, the agony of remembering the tragedies that took place in Dresden difficult to overcome. Though the novel takes place during the time of World War II, the novel was written while the Vietnam war was taking place. The Vietnam war was infamous for the thousands of protests against it, which would help explain the timing of the production of this anti-war novel, in which it became “a rallying point for youth then protesting America’s involvement in Vietnam” (MacFarlane).
In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade, Billy Pilgrim gets himself stuck (or rather unstuck) in an alternate reality that mirrors the damaging events that occurred during his service in World War II and the bombing of Dresden.
Vonnegut’s portrayal of significant events in Billy’s timeline then propose the following question: Does war affect the daily lives of veterans as prominently as represented in Billy Pilgrim’s character? Though Billy’s case seems quite extreme and controversial, nobody can be truly sure how much of Billy’s symptoms (such as trips to Tralfamadore) ring true for real, every day veterans. Billy creates an alternative world to escape. Furthermore, the work provides a serious message to its readers about the consequences of war and the toll it takes on the human
mind.
Slaughterhouse-Five is written simply and relates memories in bursts, giving the novel an innocent and sporadic feel to it. However, the fact that the novel relates the destruction after it shows the side-effects war has on Billy Pilgrim makes the novel not seem so random. When Billy goes to Tralfamadore and tries to read a book, he has trouble understanding it, as “there isn’t any particular relationship between between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce and image that is beautiful and surprising and deep” (Vonnegut 88). The fast-moving paragraphs of the novel keep the reader engaged with each scenario and setting, just like the Tralfamadorians book.The simplicity of the novel highlights Vonnegut’s proposal of the simplicity of death. The phrases “so it goes” and “and so on” recur to make the work uncomfortably okay with the circle of life and death. “So it goes” is repeated after every death mentioned, representing the naturalness of it.
As wars are still going on today, and will go on forever, post-traumatic stress disorder is still relevant in today’s society. Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children’s Crusade earned the “children’s crusade” part to remind us that soldiers are still just babies when sent into war.. Victims of this disorder have triggers, and understanding the triggers may help them get through them. PTSD is not an illness that should be taken lightly and should be recognized with care, respect and understanding