Slaughterhouse Five Psychological Analysis

War can have extreme impacts on soldiers psychological well being. During war, soldiers see blood, death, and struggle that has an impact on the way they see life and the world around them. According to the Nation Center for PTSD, About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year. About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year. (Nation Center for PTSD). Common symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder include serious anxiety, flashbacks, and uncontrollable thoughts, but there are many other psychological effects too. Along with there being many different symptoms of PTSD, they also come in different levels. An important part of learning about the psychological

War can cause people to flashback and recurring memories to war experiences. Non-linear plots in the novels such as Slaughterhouse 5 help to show how much of an impact past experiences have on people. In the novel, Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy, the main character, discusses his time in war, but also his time on another planet with creatures called Tralfamadorians. Kurt Vonnegut describes this alien life when his PTSD gets too bad to describe the war and the psychological impact that it had on him. This shows that the flashbacks from war make it difficult for people to discuss their emotions and experiences. Furthermore, the poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” describes the psychological impacts of war because it discuss how was war memories of war continue to be present in their everyday life. The poem was written by Wilfred Owen during World War I and discusses the struggles of war. In the poem the author writes, “I saw in drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sights, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” (Owens, 6). Near death experiences are quite traumatizing and can leave a lasting impact on a person and their well being. The fact that this is a reoccurring dream for the man shows that the bad memories from war never fully go away, they are always there in the back of the brain. In Slaughterhouse 5

War has an extreme psychological effect on people because it creates a sense of fear. Through the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen and and novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, both Owen and Remarque show that war does the opposite of what society thinks it would do to soldiers, it scares them. Both the poem and the expert from the novel don’t mention anything positive, it is all about the deaths and struggles that war brings. In Dulce Et Decorum Est, Owen writes, “He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” (Owen 16). This creates a sense of fear because it compares the deaths of soldiers to the painful, grueling death of drowning. Furthermore, in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, fear and death continue to be prevalent topics. In the novel, the author, a German veteran of World War I details the German soldiers' severe mental and physical stress during the war. In the novel Remarque writes, “I feel the arm all over. It is grazed by sounds. Now a crack on the skull. I begin to lose consciousness” (Remarque 66). This describes the pain and struggles that war brings. War is never pleasant, it is painful and with gun shots all around, it is scary. The feeling of extreme fear impacts people their whole lives and changes how they feel about everything they see and