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Summary Of Slaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut

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When Slaughterhouse Five was published, the Vietnam War was ongoing. The American public did not fully support the war, as can be seen through the vast amount of protests against the war, and more specifically, the draft. The people were also against the amount of money this war was costing the country, up to $25 billion a year (History Channel). Vonnegut enlisted in the military, and fought in WWII. He was captured after the Battle of the Bulge, and managed to escape during the Firebombing of Dresden (Kurt Vonnegut Biography). He saw the fiery destruction that took place during the firebombing of Dresden, and Slaughterhouse Five draws from these vivid experiences.

Kurt Vonnegut begins Slaughterhouse Five with a personal account on why it …show more content…

The “Three Musketeers” was composed of Roland Weary and the two scouts, and Billy was simply tagging along (54). However, the last remaining member of the Three Musketeers is Weary. This is extremely ironic because out of the three men in the group, Weary is the least fit to be a soldier. Both the scouts were better soldiers, yet they are killed by the Germans first. Vonnegut proves that war is not fair, or rational, and that the unexpected can happen at any time. In addition, the anaphora of “they” in conjunction with the short sentences establish a sharp rhythm which emphasizes that the murder was indiscriminate and completely by chance. After being “shot from behind,” the scouts are left to bleed out on the cold snow (54). Additionally, the blood from their wounds turn “the snow to the color of raspberry sherbet” (54). Raspberry sherbet is a vibrant, red, flavor of sherbet which serves to graphically illustrate the gruesome deaths of the scouts. Through this excerpt, Vonnegut portrays the cruel and indiscriminate nature of war, which is emphasized further due to the incorporation of irony and

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This experience deeply affected Vonnegut and this shaped his views on war, and it included the destructive power of science that was described in his writing from his novel, Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut saw firsthand the devastating consequences of the atomic bomb and was deeply troubled by the idea that science and new technology could be used for such a destructive purpose. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut uses the fictional character of Felix Hoenikker, a scientist who invents ice-nine, to explore the dangerous consequences of

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In the book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut some people think that looking back at the past is a good thing and it can help to remember things and learn from mistakes. But on the other hand some people in the book believe that looking back is a bad thing because you cannot change things that happen in the past so there is no purpose is looking back. Looking back is on the past is a good thing because it is necessary to learn from mistakes. One reason for looking back is to learn from your mistakes and this shows that you are human. Vonnegut shows that it is good to look back when he says ““Lot 's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been.

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To understand the history of past cultures, it is imperative that both sides are heard. Many novels continually showcase this new outlook on history. Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, demonstrates the New Historicism perspective with subjective accounts, reflections of the time it is written, and lack of the opposing side ’s outlook. To begin, New Historicism is showcased by subjective accounts that are apparent in developing the

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Vonnegut detracts from the heroic qualities and embellishes the flaws of Roland Weary and Edgar Derby in Slaughterhouse-Five

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Trout uses science fiction and its different elements such as cognitive estrangement and structural fabulation in order to build a metaphor that guides the reader into thinking about an aspect of society that the author wants to criticize. This communicative piece intends to portray social criticism in the way Vonnegut does it, but taken to our reality and analyzing aspects we want to condemn. We opened the book on chapter nine and decided to write our own new plot as if Billy Pilgrim was the one reading it. We wrote the text and inserted it as part of the chapter in order to adhere it to the rest of society’s criticism seen in the book in the very best Vonnegut style. In order to interpret Vonnegut’s intentions and purpose of social criticism throughout Slaughterhouse Five, specially in chapter nine, it´s necessary to understand science fiction and its elements.

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Kurt Vonnegut’s style of diction is abstract and neutral throughout the novel of “Slaughterhouse Five”. The following is an example of this: “I took two little girls with me, my daughter, Nanny, and her best friend, Allison Mitchell. They had never been off Cape Cod before. When we saw a river, we had to stop so they could stand by it and think about it for a while. They had never seen water in that long and narrow, unsalted form before.

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