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Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Literary Analysis

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Eternity of life is just a questionable idea. Can a being really live on forever, even though they are not alive and standing in front at the moment? This is just one philosophical point made by Kurt Vonnegut Jr in his book “ Slaughterhouse-5”. Vonnegut, having experienced the calamity of the Dresden bombing wrote this book to concede suffering, not to publicize or propagandize any kind of fallacy that this is an anti war book. This being said, Vonnegut scrutinizes many philosophical aspects of time, and memories which provides a being with a sense of strength to live through Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of this book, and the events that occur to shape his character. Although in the beginning Billy has not much of a character.

Billy is …show more content…

Tralfamadorians have a different, unique view of the universe. They believe that, “all moments, past, present, and future have existed, and always will exist “(27). This Billy writes in his letter to the the Ilium news leader to make them realize that there are such aliens called the Tralfamadorians who hold a new and interesting philosophy about time. Thus conveying to the reader that there is more to time and memories than is looked upon. Humans perceive this concept as being a moment for which “One moment follows another like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. (27) Vonnegut wants to show that when a moment is gone, it is not gone forever in attempt to prove the theory believed by beings wrong, hence explaining the non linear structure of the book. Through random events that Billy experiences he is always referred to as being “unstuck in time” (23).This phrase is used when Billy randomly travels to different events for example in Ch. 2 he travels to his wedding day. Vonnegut attempts to acknowledge the fact that when he travels to different events in time, they are actually his memories that he travels to and they are not linear but in fact very random which appear and disappear. The events and teachings he learns from the Tralfamadorians lead to Billy’s character …show more content…

Vonnegut attempts to direct the reader towards a deeper meaning embedded in the events that take place with Billy pilgrim which is that time and memories are eternal and random but they provide a being with a sense of mental strength.Vonnegut, shows this by the teachings Billy learns from Tralfamadore about time, memories, and death. This philosophical idea, is convoluted in itself for which Vonnegut through his experience of the Dresden bombing explains thoroughly throughout the book through

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Billy’s lack of giving up helps him stay determined. Wilson Rawls shows that Billy is very hardworking in chapters 1-6. Billy was so hardworking to get his dogs in these chapters. For Example it took Billy two years in order to get his dogs. He had to raise/earn $50 (which is $500 today).

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Not only was the story fictitious in that Billy pilgrim was not a real character, and that he could travel through time as if he was somehow “unstuck,” but there are also aliens know as Tralfamadorians, which is arguably the most science fiction thing you can put in your book. The Tralfamadorians provide the perspective of something important: and outside observer. Tralfamadorians, whom will from here on out be referred to as Tralfs, are special as they can see all of time at once. They view time as not a movement through space based on one’s own decisions one after another, but as a series of predetermined moments that occur in order, and cannot be altered. The Tralf point of view is that there is no

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843 Words | 4 Pages

everybody has their opinion on war and if it's good or bad in society. billy pilgrim's opinion on war it not about if it's good or bad but if it's necessary in human life. in the book slaughterhouse 5 billy's psychological and moral traits are shaped by his experience with war and the tralfamadorians Billy pilgrim is effected by his cultural surrounding that shape his psychological traits. when billy meets the tralfamadorians he learns many thing from their society and culture that changes his beliefs of life. one of the many things he learned was time is divided in particular moments not one constant phenomenon.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day” (Vonnegut 23). Billy can go from being a prisoner in war to on a planet called Zircon-212. That was the planet he would frequently visit and stay in a zoo there. He bounces in and out of so many times in his life. Half way through the book he flashes to the day he dies, but since he is unstuck in time it really doesn't matter.

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575 Words | 3 Pages

In the book slaughterhouse five by Kurt vonnegut, there are many deaths that contribute to the book’s meaning as a whole, it represents how death is something that takes place in everyone's lives. Vonnegut writes “so it goes” after every death or near death experience that a character in the book encounters to show how inevitable death is. Vonnegut explains, “The plane crashed on top of sugarbush mountain, in vermont. Everybody was killed but Billy. So it goes” (25).

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Meanwhile, Holden is still stuck in the past. The change that is occuring in his life is affecting his current emotions and his ability to move forward. When forced with abrupt, unforeseen change, people desire to hold onto the familiar. Salinger uses the death of Holden 's family and friends to show the tragic change that he has to deal with.

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1366 Words | 6 Pages

Some experiences, like the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD” (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). PTSD, like many other diseases, can arise from a number of conditions, making it hard to pinpoint where it stems from. Vonnegut takes into account that PTSD can come from a number of sources, providing a plethora of possible explanations for Billy’s mental capacity throughout the novel. For instance, early in Billy’s life, Billy, along

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Billy is said to become unstuck in time to different events in his life. He flashes to memories of Dresden, which is the war that he participated in. He also has episodes of his flight crash, he knows how he will die, and how his wife dies. This book is so sporadic, the audience never truly knows when this book is taking place in Billy’s life. Each page could contain three or more different events in Billy’s

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“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal”1 is a statement that in the mouth of the American writer should sound at least victorious. However, Kurt Vonnegut in the opening line of his dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron creates a highly ironical declaration, which he later ridicules by the following story. The author who gained his fame by writing the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, describes the world supposedly equal and free, but entirely bound by the laws that command the lives of people. That describes also fairly well the second short story 2 B R 0 2 B, which title refers to the famous phrase “to be or not to be”2 from William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, as mentioned in the text, “the trick telephone number that people who didn 't

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Throughout the novel, Billy has specific experiences with horrific warfare

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Furthermore, World War II has not only damaged him physically, but also mentally and has gone straight to his head. For the first time in the novel, Billy Pilgrim remembers a past event rather than time-travelling to it. Time-travel, it seems, would have made the event too immediate, too painful (Harris, Charles

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641 Words | 3 Pages

Vonnegut writes, “Billy says that he first came unstuck in time in 1944, long before the trip to Trafalmadore” (Vonnegut 30). This is a significant event in the novel as it describes Billy Pilgrim’s first encounter with the distortion of

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1189 Words | 5 Pages

Vonnegut follows this up with "Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next", making it clear that the character isn't time travelling willingly. Due to this, the plot is nonlinear and oftentimes spastic in the way that the life experiences happen. Billy Pilgrim seems to floating around in the world, following wherever the wind takes him. The plot always follows Pilgrim's character and so, wherever the time takes Billy Pilgrim next, the reader is taken on the whimsical path with

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Holden is now lost in his own fantasy world not wanting to grow up from his childhood life, due to the tragedy of Allies death. Freud’s theory would examine the depth of the unconscious state and its primary root source attached to incomprehensible pain by noting, “the preconscious state holds information we’ve stored from past experience... This information can be retrieved from memory and brought into awareness at any time” (Freud 469). Because Holden never stops thinking of his brother he is trapped in his own world and can’t find an escape to his mood disorder of depression and his emotion of tribulant grief. However, Holden acknowledges that he is lost, “they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all…I don’t blame them” (Salinger 38).

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Because of Dependent Personality Disorder, not only did Billy feel the need to have a relationship with someone but his relationship was ruined because of his fearful

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