execution of poor old Edgar Derby the irony is so great. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. And this one American foot soldier is arrested [and subsequently executed] for taking a teapot. (Vonnegut 164)
Derby has survived the firebombing but when he is caught by the Germans for stealing a small tea pot, he was shot.
While Slaughterhouse-Five is primarily a fiction novel, Vonnegut uses some science fiction to help prove his point. The Tralfamadorians are aliens that abduct Billy on a clear night 1967. "These aliens live with the knowledge of the fourth dimension, which, they say, contains all moments of time occurring and reoccurring endlessly and simultaneously" (Lichtenstein). The aliens believe they have no control over what is going to happen because they can see what is about to happen and know that they have no control over it. "Because of this ability, they have a totally different mentality than earthlings and criticize Earth 's beliefs" (Vit). The aliens talk of the problems that they see on earth. The Tralfamadorians explain to Billy that they have no free will and free will is on earth because humans have no dimension of time. For this reason the
Tralfamadorians believe that free will does not exist. They "also believe that there will always be war on earth, since humans are designed that way" (Vit). This is how Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians to criticize war. The Tralfamadorians also serve as an escape for Billy when he is stressed from his experiences on Earth. These aliens allow Billy 's mind to flee from stressful situations such as the war and the death of his wife. While Billy was in a mental institute, he begins reading science fiction books. His obsession with science fiction could have lead the Tralfamadorians to being a hallucination, but Vonnegut never clarifies this.
Besides the use of science fiction, the novel also uses some humor. The humor used is referred to as dark humor, a type of humor "that amuses the audience with something that would normally be inappropriate to laugh at" (Vit). In this case of this novel it is war. This comedy is seen in describing Billy as a "broken kite" (Vonnegut 220). When applied to parts of the book that are pertaining to war it reinforces the idea that war is absurd and "despite its absurdities, the novel is anchored in the grim reality of the pointless destruction of Dresden" (Rasmussen 125). The slightly sarcastic component of dark humor is just another way Vonnegut shows his feelings against the war.
Along with the dark humor the novel is truly one of a kind in structure. "Slaughterhouse-Five is an absurdist time-travel story in which mild-mannered Billy Pilgrim is jerked back and forth between past and future"(Rasmussen 125).
Being pulled through time could make a person feel alienated and Billy definitely shows feelings of be alone in the world. This is the kind of feeling that can be experienced by a person after witnessing a violence such as war. "The narrative is a series of traumatic events, and the psychological interest of the novel is the attempt of Pilgrim to comp with the shadows of horror" (Berryman 96). Billy loses a lot through the story, from his comrades in battle to his wife in an accidental plane crash. The fact that these events do not happen in chronological order can make the story hard to understand. Vonnegut did not intend for this story to be easy to read because it discusses war, something that is very complicated for many people to understand. Vonnegut 's strong emotions against war can be seen in the comparison between himself and Billy Pilgrim, the Tralfamadorians, dark humor, and the arrangement of the novel. Vonnegut 's experience with war left him bitter and he employs many objects in his novel to prove to his point. After discovering what Vonnegut had to go through while in Germany during the way it is easy to see why he feels the way he does. Witnessing the unnecessary destruction Dresden would leave anyone with a taste of bitterness toward war. Even though the novel can be slightly hard to read it is still one of the greatest novels written to this day. Vonnegut 's ability to keep a person entertained through such a severe topic as war is truly amazing. Slaughterhouse-Five really is an amazing story.
Works Cited
Berryman, Charles. "After the Fall: Kurt Vonnegut" Critique Winter 1985: 96-102.
"Biography of Kurt Vonnegut" Classic Notes. 18 April 2005. [www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_kurt_vonnegut.html].
Broer, Lawrence R. Sanity Plea: Schizophrenia in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Rev. ed. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1994.
Lichtenstein, Jesse and Douthat. "SparkNote on Slaughterhouse-Five." 2 May. 2005 [www.sparknotes.com/lit/slaughter/].
Rasmussen, R. Kent. "A Duty Dance with Death." Library Journal 15 July. 2004: 125.
Vees-Gulani, Susanne. "Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A Psychiatric Approach to Kurt Vonnegut 's Slaughterhouse-Five." Critique Winter 2003: 175-184.
Vit, Marek. "War in Slaughterhouse-Five" Kurt Vonnegut Essay Collection. 17 April 2005 [www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kv_sh5_war.html?20052].
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dell Publishing, 1991.
Cited: Berryman, Charles. "After the Fall: Kurt Vonnegut" Critique Winter 1985: 96-102. "Biography of Kurt Vonnegut" Classic Notes. 18 April 2005. [www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_kurt_vonnegut.html]. Broer, Lawrence R. Sanity Plea: Schizophrenia in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Rev. ed. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1994. Lichtenstein, Jesse and Douthat. "SparkNote on Slaughterhouse-Five." 2 May. 2005 [www.sparknotes.com/lit/slaughter/]. Rasmussen, R. Kent. "A Duty Dance with Death." Library Journal 15 July. 2004: 125. Vees-Gulani, Susanne. "Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A Psychiatric Approach to Kurt Vonnegut 's Slaughterhouse-Five." Critique Winter 2003: 175-184. Vit, Marek. "War in Slaughterhouse-Five" Kurt Vonnegut Essay Collection. 17 April 2005 [www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kv_sh5_war.html?20052]. Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dell Publishing, 1991.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Slaughterhouse-five is about a man named Billy Pilgrim. Pilgrim was born in 1922 and grew up in New York. He does reasonably well in school. While attending college to become an optometrist he is drafted in to the army. He trains to be a Chaplain Assistant. He is taken Prisoner in the battle of Bulge in Belgium. Right before his capture Pilgrim experiences his first flashback were he sees his entire life flashes before him. The Germans put him into a boxcar to Germany. Once he arrives he experiences a breakdown and get a shot of morphine and experiences another flashback. The POW are transported to Dresden to work manual labor. There is a slaughterhouse that is located in Dresden which become important later in the book. The US bombs Dresden and ended up killing 130,000 people. Pilgrim and some other POW survived this…
- 362 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Vonnegut then recounts his postwar life and explains how he encounters ignorance about the immensity of Dresden’s destruction and that when he contacted the U.S. Air Force for information, he discovered that the happenings of the Dresden War were still kept top secret. In 1964, Kurt took his daughter and her best friend with him to visit Bernard in Pennsylvania. He met Bernard’s wife, Mary who was disgusted by the fact that Kurt would probably portray him and Bernard in the book as men instead of the “babies” they had been. Kurt then promised to call the book “The Children’s Crusade” and Mary was happy. Later that night he read about the Children’s Crusade and the earlier Dresden bombing of 1760. While teaching at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop he landed a three-book contract. Slaughterhouse-Five would be his first, but it will be jumbled because there is nothing intelligent to write about a massacre. Relating back to when he visited Dresden again, he tells how in his hotel, his perception of passing time became distorted, as if someone were playing with the clocks. He then stated to readers that after writing his war book, he will not look back and he will write more fun books. The first chapter indicates that he wrote it after his war book , because he ends the chapter by stating how his novel will begin, and how it will…
- 517 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the middle of the Vietnam War, Kurt Vonnegut published Slaughterhouse-Five. The book is considered a piece of fiction by many, yet there are several parallels between the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and the author himself. Vonnegut enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 and later fought in the Battle of the Bulge (Biography). Vonnegut’s personally experienced the horrors of war leading to him having an anti-war view which brought meaning to his novel.…
- 598 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
This independent reading assignment is dedicated to Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut experienced many hardships during and as a result of his time in the military, including World War II, which he portrays through the protagonist of Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim. Slaughterhouse-Five, however, not only introduces these military experiences and the internal conflicts that follow, but also alters the chronological sequence in which they occur. Billy is an optometry student that gets drafted into the military and sent to Luxembourg to fight in the Battle of Bulge against Germany. Though he remains unscathed, he is now mentally unstable and becomes “unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 30). This means that he is able to perceive…
- 428 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a famous American author "known for works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction" (Kurt Vonnegut). Although Kurt Vonnegut is most widely known as a science fiction writer, what if his readers knew that he didn 't consider himself that at all? He once said he "learned from the reviewer" that he was a science fiction writer. Regardless of what Kurt Vonnegut considers himself, he is one of the most sought-after science fiction writers in history. Plagued by the Great Depression, World War II, the suicide of his mother, and a long list of other dramatic events, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. lead a difficult life. Even though these events sound terrible, it is not unreasonable to call them the core of his literary success.…
- 1873 Words
- 8 Pages
Better Essays -
In the novel Slaughterhouse- Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the story of Billy Pilgrim is used to explore numerous themes regarding life and war. Vonnegut’s appalling war experiences in Dresden guided him to write on the horrors and tragedies of war. All through the progression of the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, the reader is conveyed through the life events of Billy Pilgrim, a character who survives the Dresden firebombing and countless other tragedies. Oddly, Billy discovers ease in the concept that free will is an illusory belief, and that nothing can be done about any of the surrounding misfortunes that happen during his lifetime, or throughout any lifetime. He conveys his opinions and validates them with a claim of alien abduction, and therefore…
- 214 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
In the beginning of the fourth chapter, Billy comes in contact with the Tralfamadore aliens for the first time. Unstuck in time, Billy knew beforehand that he was going to be kidnapped by the Tralfamadorian flying saucer. Once he was aboard the ship, Billy asked “Why me?” and the alien compares Billy situation to a bug trapped in amber. “ ‘That is a very Earthling thing to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simple is. Have you ever seen a bug…
- 790 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
We all know that, world war II, was a hard disastrous time in history,but in the story slaughterhouse-five we learn from another perspective of the author who was sent in for the battle of the bulge and witnessed the bombing of Dresden. The author had many experiences from which he had with world war II, he shows what happened and could have been his thoughts throughout the narrator Billy Pilgrim. First, Slaughterhouse five says different themes and how they relate to war. Secondly, there's many events from when the author Kurt Vonnegut’s life that made him feel this way about the war. Lastly, and the attitude of Vonnegut towards war and how it affected the narrator. This novel of Vonnegut’s seemed to help him with his experiences through…
- 1060 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Vonnegut based his novel Slaughterhouse Five on his own experience as a prisoner of war during World War II.…
- 791 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
“Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next (Vonnegut 23)”. Billy Pilgrim has lost control over one of the most important principles we humans tend to treasure in life—time—but he also feels eerie in performing in his own life. Billy Pilgrim the protagonist, has become unstuck in time. Billy was capture and incarcerated by the Germans during the last years of World War II, and throughout the novel he travels from life both before and after the war, and his travels to the planet Tralfamadore. Billy is unable to control which period of his life he lands in, he has seen his birth and death many times. It is not in chronological order, it jumps back and forth in time and…
- 710 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes about World War ||. While writing about the reality of war, Vonnegut also writes about Billy Pilgrim's life both before and after the war, and from his travels to the planet Tralfamadore. Billy is able to move both forwards and backwards through his lifetime in an unpredictable cycle of events. Since Slaughterhouse-Five's central topic is the horror of the Dresden bombing, Billy comes across many questions about the meanings of life and death. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut uses irony and understatement to transfer the message that events in life are inevitable. These events may be negative, but it is important to focus on the positive memories instead.…
- 431 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The latter two books are successful in conveying their anti-war themes. The colorful autobiography of Wiesel and the satirical humor in Catch-22 more effectively portray the obscenities of war than Vonnegut 's Slaughterhouse-Five.…
- 2683 Words
- 11 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Reed, Peter J. "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." American Novelists Since World War II: First Series. Ed. Jeffrey Helterman and Richard Layman. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 2. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.…
- 1750 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
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…
- 938 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
This tangent highlights as well as complicates a central theme about war in the novel. Vonnegut uses Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time to discover the true meaning of war. The phrase “so it goes” used repeatedly throughout the novel comes from the Tralfamadorian philosophy that Billy learns in his time travels. The Tralfamadorian view is that “when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral” (27). Billy Pilgrim adopts his philosophy so that when he…
- 494 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays