Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five'
Novels are written to give a message to the world; this message can be good or bad, important or superficial, critical or supportive, but every story needs an initial purpose. Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, was published post World War II and follows the life of Billy Pilgrim who witnesses the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany during that time. On the surface, the story seems to be just a jumble of confusion and chaos without any significant insight into life, war, or human nature. However, it is by means of the perspectives and details of the novel that Vonnegut brings about his point. Through Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut portrays both mankind's constant struggle to try to control life and also its inability to actually
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One way he does this is by skipping around in Billy Pilgrim's life at random intervals going anywhere from his childhood to his death. In one part of the story, Billy is a boy caving with his parents and experiencing complete darkness one second and then the next "[he] went from total darkness to total light, found himself back in the war, back in the delousing station again" (86). Though there are a many leaps like this throughout the story, this particular example is significant in how it shows an innocent child becoming a man in the most horrific war of all time in instant sequential order. Seeing it this way, one can acknowledge that nothing was going to or ever would stop Billy from ending up in Dresden, in the war. The random jumps in time in the novel magnify how life itself is random. Through having WWII be the reoccurring backdrop of the novel, Vonnegut also shows that the quest for power and control of one's life is both hopeless and pointless. When people, governments and countries try to have power, they bring …show more content…
Firstly, he makes Billy Pilgrim a character with the exact opposite characteristic since he seems to have no desire whatsoever to control his life. When Billy is in the hospital in a concentration camp, he meets a man who says he is going to kill him in the far future. To this, Billy responds, "I, Billy Pilgrim, will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth, 1976" (134). Since time travel is a main component of the story, Billy knows the exact moment of his death, and yet it is still shocking to the reader for Billy to say this. He does not object to the knowledge in any way, nor does he ever try to stop his death when he visits that time. Normally, people have a natural need to try to survive, so most would do anything and everything to change their fate. But Billy does not think of a single idea to stop his death making it seem as if Vonnegut is implying people cannot change their future and Billy has accepted that. Another example of Vonnegut's satire of free will is the alien race from Tralfamadore who literally sees all times together and considers human philosophy about free will as ignorant. When Billy is traveling through space, he talks to a Tralfamadorian who states: "I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will” (82). Vonnegut
One way he does this is by skipping around in Billy Pilgrim's life at random intervals going anywhere from his childhood to his death. In one part of the story, Billy is a boy caving with his parents and experiencing complete darkness one second and then the next "[he] went from total darkness to total light, found himself back in the war, back in the delousing station again" (86). Though there are a many leaps like this throughout the story, this particular example is significant in how it shows an innocent child becoming a man in the most horrific war of all time in instant sequential order. Seeing it this way, one can acknowledge that nothing was going to or ever would stop Billy from ending up in Dresden, in the war. The random jumps in time in the novel magnify how life itself is random. Through having WWII be the reoccurring backdrop of the novel, Vonnegut also shows that the quest for power and control of one's life is both hopeless and pointless. When people, governments and countries try to have power, they bring …show more content…
Firstly, he makes Billy Pilgrim a character with the exact opposite characteristic since he seems to have no desire whatsoever to control his life. When Billy is in the hospital in a concentration camp, he meets a man who says he is going to kill him in the far future. To this, Billy responds, "I, Billy Pilgrim, will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth, 1976" (134). Since time travel is a main component of the story, Billy knows the exact moment of his death, and yet it is still shocking to the reader for Billy to say this. He does not object to the knowledge in any way, nor does he ever try to stop his death when he visits that time. Normally, people have a natural need to try to survive, so most would do anything and everything to change their fate. But Billy does not think of a single idea to stop his death making it seem as if Vonnegut is implying people cannot change their future and Billy has accepted that. Another example of Vonnegut's satire of free will is the alien race from Tralfamadore who literally sees all times together and considers human philosophy about free will as ignorant. When Billy is traveling through space, he talks to a Tralfamadorian who states: "I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will” (82). Vonnegut