Slaughterhouse-Five Essay

Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel written in troubled times about troubled times. It is one of the most compelling anti-war novels in American history. Kurt Vonnegut, the writer of this novel, uses his own experiences to tell a story about World War II. He was a prisoner of war during the firebombing of Dresden. Dresden is a city in Germany that was firebombed unexpectedly in 1945 as a warning to the Russians. Between 35,000 and 135,000 people were killed in the bombing. Vonnegut believes war is bad, but he also believes that it is inevitable. He regards humans as the reason that war is inevitable because people start war. Humanity is responsible for war because it is always us who start it. He also believes that war can destroy humanity, which is very evident in the novel. The chronology of events in Slaughterhouse-Five are mixed up and are not in order. I believe Vonnegut chose to write it this way to show how war can make you feel confused while telling you that the main character (Billy Pilgrim) has become “unstuck in time.” He walks through a door at one moment in his life and suddenly finds himself in another time and place."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." (Chapter 2, pg. 23) His fragmented experience of time structures the novel as short memories and shows how the difficulty of remembering traumatic experiences can require unusual literary techniques. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut creates the Tralfamadorians, aliens that live with the knowledge of the fourth dimension, which, they say, contains all moments of time occurring and reoccurring endlessly and simultaneously to discuss whether free will exists. Because they believe that all moments of time have already happened (since all moments repeat themselves endlessly), they accept their death and fate, figuring that they are powerless to change them. According to the Tralfamadorians, only on Earth, is there talk of free will, since humans, they claim, mistakenly think of time as a linear progression. "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is." (Chapter 4, pg. 86) Throughout his life, Billy runs up against forces that counter his free will. When Billy is a child, his father lets him sink into the deep end of a pool in order to teach him how to swim. However, Billy prefers the bottom of the pool, but, against his free will to stay there, he is rescued by his father. Later, Billy is drafted into the war against his will. Even as a soldier, Billy is a joke, lacking training, supplies, and proper clothing. Vonnegut uses satire in his novel, as well as adds a fatalistic point of view at times. The Tralfamadorians have a very fatalistic point of view. They have an acceptance (belief) that all events are predetermined and inevitable. This can connect to Vonneguts opinion on war and how he also believes that it is inevitable. Satire is used to draw the reader in and make them see from the authors point of view. As a result, the novel enables the reader to realize the horrors of war while simultaneously laughing at some of the situations it can generate. Vonnegut wants the reader to recognize the fact that they should accept things as they happen because no one can change the inevitable. Although Slaughterhouse-Five may not be filled with satire and funny scenes, there are accounts which the force the reader to laugh. There is a sense of an humor with the Tralfamadorian phrase, "So it goes," which is repeated over 100 times in the novel. Vonnegut's purpose in repeating the phrase after each statement of death is to build its meaning with each refrain. The repetition creates a feeling of that too many people are killed. The saying is a grim reminder that means exactly the opposite of what its words say. Vonneguts arguments about war and humanity are convincing because he shows the reader throughout the novel that war is really very mentally and physically crippling to a person who has experienced it or is experiencing it. Throughout the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut justifies that war can destroy humanity. Through the novel it is evident that Vonnegut carries his anti-war feelings shown in his writing through to his personal and moral values.