War is a tragedy that many have faced in their lifetime; Kurt Vonnegut accurately captures horrors of war, and life in general, in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five may include controversial material such as mature language, violence, and sexual themes, but is a vital learning tool that can broaden minds with the recounting of vivid, realistic experiences and expose readers to new viewpoints; banning this book would hinder the spread of understanding throughout the world.
Vonnegut begins his novel addressing the reader in order to explain why he wrote a book about his experience in World War II. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, becomes “unstuck in time,” allowing him to travel through different fragments of his life in a random order. This strange jumble of chronology
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The banning of Slaughterhouse-Five has been effective in schools along the east portion of the United States on the grounds of violence, language, and sexual scenes being elements in the book. Many of the bannings and challengings of this book were at the high school level, suggesting the little faith and support that certain parents and teachers have shown toward teenaged students. Pivotal responsibilities are being handed to teenagers such as driving, deciding life goals, planning career paths, yet these adolescents are being sheltered from knowledge that could influence their lives greatly. They may never learn to appreciate the blessings of a peaceful time period if they are unaware of the hardships of war. Similarly, Vonnegut himself has experienced this type of censorship after his years spent in the war; he returned to the United States expecting to read about the appalling events he was involved in to see it not being in the news in any form. The memories that haunted and affected each moment of his life were not understood; his burden was only his to carry due to withheld information from the