Slaughterhouse Five And Catch 22 Analysis

In the anti-war novels, Slaughterhouse - five by Kurt Vonnegut and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller there are many motifs and symbols that at first do not appear to be related but if we scratch under the surface, we are able to find striking similarities. Both novels are dealing with the man’s experience through World War II with one being a soldier and the other one being a fighter pilot. They are both known as the anti-war heroes as they disagree with the idea of war and do not possess both the will and the ability to fiercely fight for their respective country and possibly sacrifice their life for it. Neither of this men is our ordinary, more often than not, American war hero that fights, kills and conquers for the glory of his nation. Both Vonnegut
Death is something which is closely connected with fate and it usually represents an emotional and stressful process for ordinary member of the society, but for Billy, death has become something regular because of everything he has gone through. Due to his frequent travels to Trafalmadore, Billy became fond of their philosophical views on the world and death in particular. When remembering one such conversation about life with Trafalmadorians, Billy remarked: “When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it Goes' (Vonnegut, 27). Not only did his particular catchphrase in the end of the quote become a trademark of this novel, but also provided Billy with some kind of comfort, a form of resignation to the way things are. “On its own it seems like a hopeless admission of defeat to deterministic forces, or rather it seems to imply that bad things happen that we cannot control” (Menking, 3). For Vonnegut, Billy army drafts Billy into the war and he sees almost everyone around him die. “So it goes”. It is pointless to put so much energy into something which happens so often. “The most important thing that I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. […] All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist” (Vonnegut, 1970:26-27)”. This theory of death in relation to fate raises questions like why us, why anything, questions which Billy frequently asks, desperately trying to find an explanation for all the horror he witnessed, and is pleased to give up on