Slaughterhouse Five Themes

Written by Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five explores the impact of World War II on soldiers through the perspective of Billy Pilgram who is portrayed as an incompetent and helpless soldier. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut establishes his anti-war sentiments by illustrating the brutality of war in full detail and its lasting effects on Billy as an adult. By narrating Billy’s experiences with PTSD and utilizing vivid descriptions of the war in Vonnegut’s anti-war novel, he establishes his belief that war is unnecessary and destructive. Furthermore, he uses the novel’s title, innocent characterization of the soldiers of World War II, and allusions to children’s stories to construct the idea that the soldiers are children who don’t belong in war.

Already, this creates an intriguing contrast that catches the reader’s attention since the title, The Children’s Crusade has innocent and childish connotations whereas “Slaughterhouse Five” hints at violence and death. The reason for the title becomes apparent once Vonnegut explains how Mary O’ Hare, the wife of Bernard V. O’ Hare, inspired his decision to call his novel, “The Children’s Crusade”. After noticing Mary’s passive-aggressive behavior toward him when visiting O’ Hare, Vonnegut discovered the reason for Mary’s attitude when she exclaimed, “‘You were just babies in the war—like the ones upstairs!’” (18). Vonnegut agrees with her, however, Mary continues to pressure Vonnegut by commenting that he would portray the innocent babes as heroic men and that war would be shown as a wonderful thing in movies, which would lead to more wars being fought by babies (18). To this, Vonnegut responds by making a promise to call his book, The Children’s Crusade and gives his word of honor “that there won’t be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne” (18). Through this interaction, it is evident that Vonnegut agrees with Mary’s belief that the soldiers in the war were too young. He confirms that belief by thinking, “We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood” (18). This illustrates

He begins by providing a haggard description of Billy, going as far as to describe him as “a filthy flamingo” (42). The imagery portrays Billy as pathetic and inept as a soldier compared to Roland Weary and the two scouts. However, it eventually becomes clear that Roland Weary and the two scouts are just as incapable and amateurish. The scouts and Roland Weary don’t survive the war, which implies their inadequacy compared to Billy who does survive. However, this is ironic because they would have been expected to survive the war rather than Billy. When Billy and Weary are captured by five german soldiers, Vonnegut explains that “two of the Germans were boys in their early teens” (67). Already, the reader can begin to realize how young some of the soldiers are. Furthermore, Vonnegut introduces Roland Weary as being only 18 and “at the end of an unhappy childhood spent mostly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (44). By revealing Roland Weary’s age, the reader can infer that the soldiers are on the brink of childhood and that although they are technically adults, in actuality, they are still children who had been thrown into war. This also circles back to Vonnegut’s earlier comment about the soldiers being foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood. Although Roland Weary is