The Writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007) was born in Indianapolis, USA in 1992 and known as a novelist, satirist, and a graphic artist. He studied biochemistry at Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, writing column for the student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut served in the Second World War in Europe and was a prisoner of War in Germany, witnessing the bombing and destruction of Dresden in 1945. Slaughterhouse-Five was inspired by these events, and is thus a semi-autobiographical classic novel published in 1969 by Delacorte that also made him a millionaire. Vonnegut was an atheist, humanist, socialist and a vivid supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union. (goodread.com 2015; Niose 2007) Slaughterhouse-Five Slaughterhouse-Five, or by another name The Children’s Crusade due to a promise Vonnegut made for a friend, is an anti-war book written in an satirical manner and a dash of dark humor. The protagonist of the book a character named Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist, prisoner of war, father and husband. Billy Pilgrim has come “unstuck in time” as the writer describes it (Vonnegut 1969, 2). The story’s time and place structures are often really vague and change a lot, as Billy has the ability – or should one say tendency – to “time-travel” from a …show more content…
For example, Billy is part of the same regiment as Roland Weary, a cruel, abusive 18-year-old man obsessed with war. His version of the war story depicts himself as a war hero part of The Three Musketeers, involving himself and two scouts, saving the life of a poor college kid Billy Pilgrim – but not out of compassion. Weary dies being held as a prisoner by the Germans, blaming Billy for his own demise. Another prisoner called Paul Lazzaro promises to revenge Weary’s death, and makes it clear that there is no way to prevent Pilgrim’s assassination. Billy however has already foreseen and accepted his own death due to the