Slaughterhouse Five Research Paper

Spencer Burns Mrs. Mitchell English III CP, period 1 8 March 2024 Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five: Recovering from Trauma Through Science-fiction Thesis: In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses self inserts as well as a partially autobiographical protagonist to aid himself in recovering from trauma caused by his involvement in World War II to try and understand life. Biographical sketch Birth Parents Writing career Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Published during Vietnam Mother Night & Cat’s Cradle National Book Awards for Fiction Self inserts and a partially autobiographical protagonist First chapter Characteristics Year of birth Non-religious War service Self inserts Great depression, WWII, and Vietnam Birth year Growing up WWII

Mitchell English III CP, period 1 8 March 2024 Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five: Recovering from Trauma Through Science-fiction War. What does it cause? War impacts the minds of all who are caught in it. War leaves behind a footprint of trauma and regret for anyone who is unlucky enough to experience it and leaves them with an inability to describe their feelings. This is exemplified in Slaughterhouse. Five traumas and the side effects, like existentialism and humor, are explored for the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and the author, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses self-inserts as well as a partially autobiographical protagonist to aid himself in recovering from trauma caused by his involvement in World War II to try and understand life. Understanding what Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s life was like helps to make the story and plot of Slaughterhouse Five more digestible for the reader. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 11, 1922, and was the youngest of three kids to Kurt Vonngeut and Edith Lieber (Tomedi 4). Growing up he was in “middle America Depression-era Indianapolis” (Tomedi 4). Vonnegut took a liking to writing while in his high school years when he was the editor for the Shortridge High School Daily Echo (Shields 20). After High School, he attended college at Cornell University, neglecting his schooling to write for the campus’s newspaper. However, “by the middle of his sophomore year, he was on

He then published the novel in 1969 (Klinkowitz xii). His life played a very important role in the stories he created, especially in Slaughterhouse Five. From the author to the novel, Slaughterhouse Five represents confusion and healing for both the main character and Vonnegut. The novel had gained popularity rather quickly, but this was more because of the timing of the publication having more to do with those who were critiquing the U.S.A’s involvement in the Vietnam war (Tally 11). It put Vonnegut in the national spotlight with the novel finding its rightful place on both banned-books and best-seller lists (Tomedi 2). Vonnegut’s works often deal with themes of “war, apocalypse, and biography” like in Cat’s Cradle and Mother Night (Wicks 331). The novel won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1970 (“Slaughterhouse”). Slaughterhouse Five focuses on Billy Pilgrim, a regular person serving in World War II when he becomes unstuck in time, drifting through different periods in his life. While doing so, he is abducted by aliens, known as Tralfamadorians, who keep him in a zoo on their home planet.