...Throughout the past couple decades, society has bared witness to a rise in romanticized and glorified war stories depicted in film and literature. However, this image of war as an honorable and worthwhile endeavor has always been present in human history up until the 1960’s. Written in 1969, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five is an absurd satirical novel inspired by the author’s experiences in World War II that follows protagonist Billy Pilgrim through all phases of his life as he has become unstuck in time. On the other hand, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed by Stanley Kubrick is a political dark humor film released around the same time, only five years prior, that satirizes the madness and terrifying...
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...In Vonnegut’s anti-war book, Slaughterhouse-Five, he has a character named Billy Pilgrim, who is a drafted American soldier during World War II. He goes through different parts of his life by time traveling and encounters with aliens along the way. The story revolves around the bombing of Dresden and how Billy interprets life as the way he sees it. From end to end in the book, Vonnegut uses plentiful of rhetorical techniques such as: metaphors, syntax, and diction to emphasize to the readers that the British are comically more “realistic” for war than the American POWs— in all actuality the Americans are mostly depicted the way it is in reality. The way Vonnegut intertwines metaphors, syntax, and diction to reiterate that the American POWs are not as well “prepared”, although the British are. Vonnegut uses syntax as he writes, “The Englishmen had hoarded these so cunningly that now, as the war was ending, they had three tons of sugar, one ton of coffee, eleven hundred pounds of chocolate, seven hundred pounds of tobacco…” He contrasts the British explicitly with the detailed list that they are rich of food and resources because the British have to share with the broke down Americans....
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...Kurt Vonnegut, Through Pain and Struggle Comes Triumph Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is known as one of the great science fiction writers during the 1950s through the 70s. He is widely known for his novel Slaughterhouse- Five, in which he took some of his own experiences with the war in Vietnam and wrote a science fiction novel. Vonnegut had written about his experiences a lot. This is why Vonnegut’s experiences with depression and death are themes explained in his work. The following paragraphs will explain the two works that have been read and give background on the man himself. Early Life Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11th, 1922. Vonnegut’s ancestors come from German descent and they brewed beer as a family business and were also architects. Even in his early life Vonnegut has dealt with diversity. The impact of World War I seriously changed the lives of the family. Because of his German descent his family became a victim to prejudice treatment around the state. After the war the family had to deal with the prohibition, which took away the income and then the Depression slowed down and almost stopped the production of homes. Out of the 3 children Kurt could be seen as the child who did not get the best. His older sister and brother, Alice and Bernard both went to private schools while Kurt went to public schools. In 1940 Vonnegut attended the prestigious Ivy League school Cornell University. He majored in biochemistry. Later Years ...
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...was not needed. Right before Vonnegut published SlaughterHouse-Five, the American presence in Vietnam was at a high of about 545,000 troops. It could be said that this astonishing number of troops brought back the memory of he, himself, "When we arrived, Dresden was like a fairy tale, the most amazing place I'd ever seen,"...
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...That is to say, one must read in between the lines to gather the full understanding of Vonnegut’s expressions, or rather inexpression of violence of war. Vonnegut’s writing style directly correlates to the notions that violence cannot be accurately represented. Ultimately, this suggests that Slaughterhouse Five’s larger theme at work is that the violence of war is a trauma that is utterly unrepresentable. In majority of Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim’s explanations are done in a matter-of-fact way. Whether this be about time travel, his family’s tragedies, or about the...
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... Main Character Protagonist Friend of Vonnegut’s from the War. Wife of Bernard Taxi Driver for Vonnegut and O’Hare Author and takes part in WWII scenes. A middle aged school teacher in WWII Billy Visits her in Nursing Home Billy’s wife Billy’s Daughter, newly-wed Billy’s Son, Green Beret Bill’s mate in Tralfamador’s zoo Fellow soldier, helps Billy in WWII A group of Aliens that take Billy captive The man on the train that talks to Billy Soldier, vows to kill Billy Help out Billy in WWII Science fiction writer, Billy’s favorite author Man who dies on Train in Germany Fellow resident in Mental ward with Billy An American turned Nazi German guard at Slaughterhouse Roommate of Billy in Hospital Wife of Bertram Throws Billy into Pool, dies in hunting Accident We see his life and the horrible and odd things he has had to experience throughout it. Helps Vonnegut get ideas for book by going to Dresden with him. Tells Vonnegut to not make it a Pro-war novel. Book is dedicated to her. The book is also dedicated to him because of his sympathy for O’Hare. The book stems from his experiences in WWII. He is a fellow PoW and gets shot for taking a teapot, seen as inevitable. She shows contempt towards her sons view towards life. Shows...
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...ENG 503: CLASS PRESENTATION ASSIGNMENT Report Slaughterhouse Five–Ch. 1-5 For Professor David Copeland By Bill Shelson Alex Tramov Amani Vandeen-Brown Duncan Watt The Truth about Free Will Throughout the majority of this short novel we are introduced to characters who go through horrific situations that affect them physically and more importantly psychologically. Billy Pilgrim our main character is given the curse of travelling back and forth through time seeing his life events and reliving them as well. He loses control through this ordeal because he has no choice in what moments of his life that he is allowed to go back to. Billy also does not have the physical power to change any events that he is not fond of or prevent any future occurrences that he wishes had not happened. Billy is stripped of his Free Will on many occasions and eventually learns how to cope with it. The lack of control Billy endures over the experience of his life teaches him to truly appreciate the good moments he’s lived and to accept the inevitability of events. This story is about a man who witnesses and overcomes horrible situations but becomes aware that life will always throw things at you that are not preventable. In the first five chapters of Slaughter House Five our main character Billy finds his situation becoming increasingly dire in the war and beginning to experience his life out of order. "Billy is a spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips...
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...“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around you.” Vonnegut In this quote, Vonnegut describes the meaning of life is to develop relationships with everyone around you. In the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the reader is taken on an adventure with Billy Pilgrim through being a prisoner of war, traveling through time, and being kidnapped to a foreign planet in order to become a zoo exhibit. Through Billy’s life, he is constantly being flashed through different periods in his life, all while lacking any emotion at all.After reading the book, one can easily assume Slaughterhouse Five is a book about how life should be lived, as it is shown through Billy’s characteristics and the repetitive use of time travel....
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...In “Slaughterhouse Five”, Vonnegut writes a whole novel based on World War Two and the bombing of Dresden. Billy Pilgrim, the main character has been drafted into the army during World War two, where he trains to be a chaplain’s assistant, which causes him to be disliked by many of his peers. Billy is thrown into the Battle of the Bulge where he is immediately taken prisoner by the Germans, put into a slaughterhouse prison and assigned to work for the city of Dresden. Due to the war Billy was diagnosed with PTSD and has become unstuck in time. He states that he has seen his birth and death many times, hence pays random visits to events in between. Billy doesn’t see much freedom in his life, which is why he has no shame in believing that there is no such thing as free will. According to Vonnegut there are no heroes or villains, if there were to be any we would be judging people by their actions and intentions. There is one character that comes close to being a hero, Edgar Derby who stands up to an American Nazi but in this novel he isn’t known for being a “hero”. Billy believes that aliens known as the Tralfamadorians have kidnapped him and have taken him to their planet Tralfamadore. The Tralfamadorians teach Billy their perspective of life and that if someone dies they...
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...Thus Far in Slaughterhouse Five, the readers were bombarded with many different pieces of new information. Billy Pilgrim was aboard with the creatures of Tralfamadore heading to their home. On the way, Billy asked to read a book to kill the time. Although they had many books on microfilm, they could not project them so he was stuck with one option, and the book was called Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann. They did not only have books in english, but they had books written in their form of writing. On page 88 it says, ““Only Tralfamadorian novels, which I’m afraid you couldn’t begin to understand,” said the speaker on the wall.” Even though Billy obviously couldn’t read Tralfamadorian, he tried to and he discovered that they are laid out so there were clumps of symbols separated by stars which were bits of messages so if you read them all, they would have...
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...Night and Slaughterhouse-Five For thousands of years mankind has been killing each other for what, to gain more land, to gain superiority over another, or to show how strong we are. For whatever reason we are always at war with each other the 1900 were no exception with two world wars and plenty of smaller wars. “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. John F. Kennedy”like J.F.K. said war will end us if we keep it up war helps no one it just bring destruction and chaos. Out of all the wars both novels ‘Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut’ and ‘Night by Elie Wiesel’ were based on the second World War. ’Night’ is about the hardship that a Jewish boy had to go through to survive Auschwitz and Slaughterhouse-Five was...
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...Slaughterhouse Five Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is an anti-war novel written in 1969. This novel shadows a soldier, Billy Pilgrim, during the Second World War. The bombing of Dresden, Germany is the main event. Due to the fact that this is the main event, Slaughterhouse Five is a semi-autobiographical novel. The main character of Slaughterhouse Five is Billy Pilgrim. Billy is a confused, defeatist, and an ill-trained soldier for America. Billy refuses to fight in the war “Billy wouldn’t do anything to save himself” (Vonnegut 43). He journeys back and forth through time “From there he traveled in time to 1965” (55). Billy was a prisoner of war in World War II and was taken by the Germans. He also believes that he was taken by aliens to a planet called Tralfamadore. Many people in Slaughterhouse Five do not like Billy Pilgrim. One person in particular is Paul Lazzaro, another bizarre and ill-tempered prisoner of war. Paul does not like Billy because Billy was blamed for the death of Paul’s noble acquaintance, Roland Weary. Regardless of Billy’s objections, Paul Lazzaro vows to kill Billy. Paul retains a mental list of his rivals and he claims the he will have any person “Killed for a thousand dollars plus traveling expenses”(140). The narrator also said that Lazzaro “threaten[ed] to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war” (1). Roland Weary, a man infatuated with blood and gore, does not like Billy either. In hope of a military medal, Weary...
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...Cheyenne Maldonado Professor Robert Furstoss "Fierce Consciousness" English 151-03 2/07/15 The Blood of Dresden In Kurt Vonnegut's Essay "The Blood of Dresden" there are multiple times where, even though he was a prisoner of war, he could see the beauty of the city he was captured in. He was able to come to love the city of Dresden and "saw the blessed wonder of her past and the rich promise of her future." He goes of to tell us how it was bombed, how this beautiful city was reduced to crushed stone and embers by bombs dropped wide of stated objectives. That we lost generations of German children whether they were future enemies or not, cannot be justified. That he saw this war as "obscene brutality." He saw this first hand because Vonnegut was one of the many men who pulled out the dead of Dresden out of the shambles of rubble. He was the one who brought them to a funeral pyre, a technique that was long abandoned. The Americans did indeed learnt how to "kick a man below the belt and make him scream" Vonnegut saw that the bombing of Dresden was an awful event, even him being a POW. He said that it was once a tourists paradise because it was one of the world's most lovely city. He goes on to paint this image of Dresden as pleasant, honest, and...
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...Slaughterhouse-Five - Imagery Kurt Vonnegut's uses many images to enhance the overall effect of Slaughterhouse- Five. Throughout the novel, in both war scenes and in the protagonist's travels back and forward in time, the many images produce a believable story of the unusual life of Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut uses color imagery, repetitive images, and images of pain and suffering to develop the novel and create situations that the reader can accept and comprehend. Billy Pilgrim's life is far from normal. Throughout most of his adult life he has been moving backwards and forwards through time, from one event to another, in a non-sequential order. At least, this schizophrenic life is hard to understand. Because Vonnegut wants the reader to relate to Billy Pilgrim, he uses distinct images to tell the story. One type of imagery in Slaughterhouse-Five is color imagery. While Billy is in the war, Vonnegut describes several pairs of "blue and ivory" feet. Billy's own hands and feet are blue and ivory, as are those of the corpses he glimpses during his march as prisoner of war (Vonnegut 65). These colors represent those that are cold, dead, or dying. At another point in the novel, Billy describes his first time traveling experience.He began to "swing grandly through the full arc of his life, passing into death, which was violet light . . . going backwards into pre-birth, which was red light and bubbling sounds" (43). The careful and vivid depiction of colors enables the...
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...Vonnegut’s vision for Slaughterhouse-Five was not to glorify war, but to make it clear that World War II was not a heroic act. As discussed, he highlights the obvious downsides of war. For example, soldiers did not have basic supplies like boots resulting in frostbite, they experienced bombings, lootings, constant hunger, and the overall destruction of war that clearly left an impact on Vonnegut and in turn his protagonist whom he places his personal experiences upon. The American soldiers portrayed in the novel are mostly weak and run down while the British soldiers are portrayed as fit, tough, “real” soldiers. This is important to note because the characters of British soldiers are POWs that were captured and the very beginning of the war in Dunkirk so they were never exposed to the true destruction and death that the American POWs were. The British did not understand why the Americans were so weak and even looked down on them for their lack of hygiene, but in reality the British were just extremely lucky to have escaped the war before the horror truly began. This anti-war message expressed by Vonnegut in his novel was received controversially in many parts of the world, specifically throughout the United States. Slaughterhouse-Five was frequently censored in high schools throughout America. For example, in Oakland County, Michigan the book was banned. The circuit judge who made the decision had nothing good to say about the book at all. He said Slaughterhouse-Five was “depraved, immoral...
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