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Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

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Kurt Vonnegut is a famous American author who wrote many novels, short stories, broadway plays, and also scripts for television shows. On November 11, 1922, Vonnegut was born into wealth and peace on his father’s Indianapolis farm where he was constantly overshadowed from his genius siblings. When the stock market crashed in 1929, his father's architecture firm failed and all the money they saved was lost (Peck). Vonnegut viewed the world as a happy and peaceful place until he was enlisted to fight in World War II where his view of the world was completely changed (Priest). During war, he experienced many gruesome parts of war that would keep him horrified for over 23 years until he overcame them by writing a novel about his experiences in …show more content…

Billy goes through similar experiences that Vonnegut did such as being in war, being overworked in a concentration camp, and being in the middle of the Firebombing of Dresden. Billy had a peaceful life in Ilium New York until he is drafted into war. Even in war, Billy learned how to stay peaceful. Like Vonnegut, Billy never carried a gun and almost froze in the cold climate. At the Battle of the Bulge, Billy and three others were captured and brought to concentration camps. Vonnegut experienced this same event but he was captured with hundreds of soldiers rather than three. Like Vonnegut, Billy experienced the firebombings of Dresden and hid under a slaughter house that would save his life …show more content…

American and British soldiers flew planes over the city of Dresden and bombed many targets including Vonnegut’s concentration camp. The bombings killed over 135,000 people, almost twice as many casualties as the bombings of Hiroshima. Despite this mass number of deaths, this event rarely did anything to German forces (“Kurt” 267). Kurt Vonnegut was working in a concentration camp at the time of the bombings. From February 13 and 14, Vonnegut and several other workers hid under a slaughterhouse to stay shielded from bombs. They waited out the bombings and walked out to see a leveled camp and town. They were liberated since nobody could take charge of them anymore and they were sent home. Billy also experienced the bombings a of Dresden. Along with himself and several others, Billy hid under a slaughterhouse to stay safe from bombs. Billy was not so lucky though. Upon exiting the Slaughterhouse and looking around to see what damage was done, Billy was abducted by aliens and brought to the planet of Tralfamadore where he would be placed in another work

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Albeit, Billy's coping mechanism is a negative one, it worked for him. He is disassociated from reality because he truly believes the Tralfamadorian philosophy of "All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist." (27) The bombing of Dresden happened, and since it happened, it has always happened that way and always will happen that way. At least, that's what the Tralfamadorians think.

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1. How did revolutionary America see both improvements and limitations in women’s roles and rights? Revolutionary America saw improvements and limitations in women's roles and rights through various methods. One of the common limitations in women's rights is the topic of gender versus power. In most cases, the husband had legal authority over their wives, ultimately considering the women to be unfit for citizenship.

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He brings his experience from the bombing of Dresden and recalls his encounters during the tragedy. Through the subject of Billy, he describes the aftermath of man’s destructive power through the bombing, “It looked like Dresden after it was fire-bombed-like the surface of the moon” (). From this quote, he paints a true sight of war where nothing is left but dust. He relates this event to emphasize the fact that war is a place of sadness and despair and from Billy’s viewpoint he observes the hurtfulness and all the destructiveness of the world when the city of Dresden gets

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In May, Russians take the area and Billy was sent back to his own country. After the war, Billy returned to Illium to finish school. He then got engaged to the school’s owner’s daughter. Soon after Billy had gotten engaged he has a mental breakdown and is committed to a veteran's hospital. After he is released, he marries Valencia, the girl he was engaged to.

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1164 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel ‘Slaughterhouse five’ written by Kurt Vonnegut we follow a man named Billy Pilgrim who became unstuck in time. He was a soldier during WW2 and became a prisoner to the Germans. Afterward he was send to Dresden, a nice town that doesn’t get involve in the war. As he’s about to be send out, an English soldier told him not worry about much as there’s no involvement of war activity in the town. However once he arrived the Americans bombed the town, blazing up in flame.

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1442 Words | 6 Pages

While fighting against the Germans, Billy and several others were captured as prisoners of war. When arriving at the camp, Billy and the other men encountered English soldiers who have been captive for years. The men were isolated from society and have not been able to live their lives: “It has been five years now since I have seen a tree or flower or woman or child-or a dog or a cat or a place of entertainment, or a human being doing useful work

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648 Words | 3 Pages

Billy is captured in Germany during the second world war and the novel is the story of his journey all the way from the battle fields, to prisoner camps, and finally to the moment of freedom and survival of him and 99 other men as the town of Dresden, where they are last stationed, is blown to bits by the US Armed Forces with nearly no survivors. There are many cases of healthy confusion in this novel, such as when Billy Pilgrim travels in time, when he claims he was abducted by aliens called Tralfamadorians, and when he escapes the ashed ruins of Dresden, Germany.

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843 Words | 4 Pages

after the bombs fell on dresden billy frequently compared the destroyed city to the moon like in this quote when he said,”Nobody talked much as the expedition crossed the moon. There was nothing appropriate to say. One thing was clear: Absolutely everybody in the city was supposed to be dead, regardless of what they were, and that anybody that moved in it represented a flaw in the design. There were to be no moon men at all” (8.26.2). this quote really brings up the devastation and destruction part of war.

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800 Words | 4 Pages

25,000 people died when the Allied forces dropped incendiary devices over Dresden, Germany. After surviving this, Kurt Vonnegut was forced to clean up the charred bodies. Although the term did not specifically enter the english language until after the publishing of Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because of what he witnessed there. Most people who suffer from PTSD use common coping techniques some are simply in denial, some stay in an emotional state of uneasiness, while others result to self-harm. Vonnegut uses the novel as a coping mechanism to find new ways to handle the disorder.

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987 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the author, Kurt Vonnegut uses a very unique way of making his readers both understand and feel Billy Pilgrim’s experiences. He does this by beginning the novel in a somewhat usual way (no novel is ever the same) and then shocks us by making Billy travel through his past and future and his present. Proof of this would be when Billy, on the night of his daughter Bernadette’s wedding, waits an hour to be abducted by the aliens. Then after asking the aliens “why him?” , he is transported to the moment when he and other war prisoners are in a freight car trying to sleep; although Billy sleeps standing because he screams and kicks in his sleep.

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1745 Words | 7 Pages

Vonnegut wanted to “try to write my war story, whether it was interesting or not, and try to make something out of it.” Vonnegut wanted to make a significant point across about the horrors of the war stating several times he is currently writing an anti war novel(******). The main character Billy is broken from the war, which is clearly stated in (*******). Showing what Vonnegut went through through Billy described the Dresden bombing as the worst bombing and experience that any prisoner of war had

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1944 Words | 8 Pages

His desensitization is both an example of his struggles during the war and the PTSD that haunts him every day thereafter. If a soldier were to absorb every horror he saw, he would be incapable of surviving much longer than the war itself. Comparing Billy’s life of misery after World War II to those who were brutally slaughtered begs the question of who had the better end---the man who died young, or the man who, while still alive, doesn’t know how to live? The answer that Vonnegut conveys is that neither man wins. In war, there are no winners.

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989 Words | 4 Pages

World War II is notorious for its mass destruction and loss of lives. On February 13th, 1945 the Allied powers bombed the city of Dresden, killing more than 135,000 people. In German captivity, Kurt Vonnegut survived the bombings while waiting underground for hours. Imagine surviving one of the deadliest acts of war, listening to a city crumbling down above you, and then being forced to clean up the aftermath. This was the reality Kurt Vonnegut had to face.

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441 Words | 2 Pages

First, the setting of this story takes place in the past, present, and the future. The central point of this story; however, is in a city of Germany called Dresden. On the night of February 13, 1945, Allied bombers dropped incendiary bombs on Dresden, creating a firestorm that destroyed the city (Source Cox, F. Brett). Billy, the main character, describes his experience before, during, and after these bombings took place. From the wondrous moments of scouring Dresden, to being captured alive by

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1571 Words | 7 Pages

The way individuals think about human rights is different than the way the government does. Samuel Moyn publishes Human Rights, Not So Pure Anymore, to influence the readers of the New York Times that their definition of human rights does not align with western governments. Attempting to persuade the liberal adults of New York City, among other readers of the New York Times, Moyn creates the argument that corruption has changed the definition of human rights from being about personal welfare to political gains. Although he introduces several observations regarding the unfair treatment of human rights by governments, his emotional bias and lack of solid evidence prevents him from thoroughly proving his argument.

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