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Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five Anti-War

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Slaughterhouse-Five Anti-War Essay Slaughterhouse-Five was an influential anti-war book written by acclaimed author, Kurt Vonnegut. It follows main character Billy Pilgrim, who has become unstuck in time, and randomly views various moments of his life with no control over what he can view at the current moment. These moments include his time in the second World War, his time on the planet of Tralfamadore, and other occurrences in his bizarre life. Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences in Dresden and the second world war and America’s involvement in the Vietnam War help to shape his overarching message of his views on war in general. The character of Billy Pilgrim is used in a creative way to help address Vonnegut’s message. Billy believes that he doesn’t have much control over anything in life, and he believes that “among the things he could not change were the past, present and future.”(pg. 60). As we progress throughout the …show more content…

In 1969, most of the american population was fed up with the war effort. They were upset because lots of young men were being sent to the frontlines because of the draft, and then some ended up dying as well. They were also upset because the war didn’t seem to have much meaning, and hints of hypocrisy from our government by trying to stop the spread of communism with the spread of representative democracy. Vonnegut used this to his advantage, writing about the bombing of Dresden. It opened all the readers’ eye’s to how much more horrific war can be, with lots of young men and innocent civilians dying for an unnecessary cause. Some sources say that the amount of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed in the war were estimated to be in the millions. Vonnegut wanted to capitalize on this anger and unrest, to help voice his own opinions on war, and to raise awareness to others who currently didn’t share similar

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War can be effective and aspire people to various expansions. Kurt Vonnegut was negatively affected by war, to write Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut introduces a man by the name of Billy Pilgrim who served in World War Two. Pilgrim shows the realities of war with an ugly truth; either you are left to die, or you would be traumatized.

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Slaughterhouse-Five: An Escape from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder What does World War II and aliens have in common? Kurt Vonnegut tries to answer this peculiar question in his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969). For twenty-first century readers, it may seem obvious that serving in World War II had a significant impact on Billy Pilgrim’s mental health.

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Throughout the 20th century, especially after World War II and the Vietnam War, society explored the unseen and undervalued experiences of those that received neglect during major events that changed the common perception of time. Through "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut, a former war prisoner in Dresden during World War II, expands on the ever-changing distortion of time by representing himself as Billy Pilgrim, a soon-to-be-optometrist and army rookie who has the ability to time-travel and view specific moments multiple times. In addition, Vonnegut exposes the confusing realities of everyday life, particularly the undeserved celebration of war, and the personalities of being stressed towards the obstacles of being human, offering contemporary

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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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Kurt Vonnegut The Slaughterhouse-Five Essay

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However, the horror of WW2 occurred, which Kurt Vonnegut fought in. Around this time also, was when the great depression was sprouting and destroying many companies and families. WW2 and its events that occurred, was most inspiring to his writing “The Slaughterhouse-Five”. During the war, Vonnegut and his POWs were about 60 feet underground inside a slaughterhouse meat locker when the ground above him was bombed. With 60,000 people killed in the accident, Kurt and his POWs survived.

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1745 Words | 7 Pages

Kurt Vonnegut enlisted in the United States Army at the time of World War II. He was captured as a prisoner of war where he received much of his literary inspiration for Slaughterhouse-Five. The anti war theme throughout the book is touched on and also rebutted when Vonnegut states, “there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers” (Vonnegut 4). Vonnegut knows he is writing an anti war book but also is aware that wars cannot altogether be halted he is only trying to relay the horrors of war. The number of innocent victims killed by the bombing is alarming and Vonnegut keeping with his anti war theme made it a point to center his novel around the Dresden bombing which increased knowledge of what the historical city Dresden once was.

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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.

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Throughout the book, Billy Pilgrim has flashbacked to many different parts of his life flashing back to the war, his childhood, his adulthood, and his trips to Tralfamadore stories. These flashbacks are constantly coming and going from one to the other even though it was slightly confusing, but got a lot easier to understand. Thus proving that since

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So, the message Kurt Vonnegut is showing the reader, is that a society should not glorify war. Thus saying that the killing of innocent civilians is more important than, going to war and not gaining anything. To conclude, Kurt vonnegut uses the theme of war in Slaughterhouse five to show how war has been glorified by the society in which Billy lived in. The glorification of war then led into the bloodshed of many innocent live.

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1246 Words | 5 Pages

What the Mind Does in Dark Times “It’s not about time travel and flying saucers, it’s about PTSD,” wrote author and critic William Deresiewicz in The Nation magazine in 2012, after reading Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse Five is a semi-autobiographical science fiction-infused anti-war novel written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut served in World War II as a member of the United States Army for just over two years. He was a member of the 106th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge and then later as a POW in Dresden (National WWII Museum, 2020). Following his experiences in the Army, he published fourteen novels, and one of the most famous, Slaughterhouse- Five, is based on his own war experiences in Dresden.

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The Reality of War War is depicted as necessary and soldiers are strong and ready for war, but is this actually reality? Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut is the story of a man named Billy Pilgrim who was in the army during WWII at the age of 21. In the novel, Billy is captured by the Nazi’s in Germany. The book follows his story as a POW, his experience during the bombing of Dresden and how the war impacted him and his mind after. Whereas the dominant narrative of war suggests soldiers are strong, mature men and that the enemy is a threat, Vonnegut uses irony to show that, in reality, war is filled with weak, childlike soldiers and the enemy is just like us and nonexistent.

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Slaughterhouse Five Essay

1321 Words | 6 Pages

Abstract Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, reenacts the lives of American soldiers during WWII. This book shows the true aspects of war without censoring many events, including becoming a prisoner of war. It focuses on the bombing of Dresden, and how it affects the narrator for the rest of his life. As Billy becomes “unstuck in time”, he travels throughout his life, spending months on a Tralfamadore spacecraft while only seconds have passed on Earth. “Earthling”, Billy Pilgrim, the main character, encounters many scenes that require a mature audience.

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

The novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut has been a controversial novel for quite some time. Vonnegut starts out the novel by telling the reader he is going to write a book about the bombing of Dresden. He then asks his friend from the war, O’ Hare, to help him retain his memories, but while they recap information, O’ Hare’s wife is flustered and angered that someone wants to write a book about something so horrible. She does not want her kids seeing war as a good thing coming from the book. While writing his book, Vonnegut struggles to recall his past, and PTSD played a factor, even though the disease was not discovered yet during the 60’s.

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1067 Words | 5 Pages

In the beginning the sight of his creation petrified Victor Frankenstein. As the novel progresses the relationship and the similarities between the Creature and Dr. Frankenstein become extremely obvious. They possess a need for knowledge which leads to extreme curiosity; which then lead to the creation of the Creature. They also both use nature to their advantage in many situations throughout the novel. The biggest similarity throughout the novel comes from the unending need for revenge.

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1189 Words | 5 Pages

How did Kurt Vonnegut use postmodern approaches to create an antiwar antinovel in Slaughterhouse 5? When Slaughterhouse 5 was published, it could have been considered as an outsider in the literary world. In the midst of the Vietnam war, it was preaching antiwar notions, and in a time where straightforward linear storylines dominated the media, Slaughterhouse 5 presented a challenging nonlinear plot. The nonlinearity in plots would later on become a staple of postmodern literature but Kurt Vonnegut missed the peak of the postmodern era publishing the novel in 1969; a decade before the peak in the 1980's.

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