Summary Of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-5: A tale of human war and Suffering Eternity of life is just an equivocal concept. Can a being live perpetually, even if not alive at this moment? This is just one philosophical point made by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in his book “ Slaughterhouse-5”. Vonnegut, having experienced the calamity of the Dresden bombing wrote this book to concede suffering, and not to publicize or propagandize any kind of fallacy that this is an anti-war book. This being said, Vonnegut scrutinizes the philosophical aspects of time, and memories that restore a being. To convey this message Vonnegut displays Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist, as uncompetitive character, who learns a unique perspective of time and memory, which leads to his character progression.

Billy is described to be “a funny-looking youth- tall and weak, and shaped like a bottle of Coca cola,” (23). This is about the only description given of him. His physical appearances are described to be cadaverous, yet Vonnegut does not illustrate Billy’s persona, construing him voiceless and colorless in imagination. Along with such physicality, he is somewhat ludicrous. When combating in the Battle of Bulge, he is almost shot. For days, he is under the risk of death but does not pursuit to run away or save himself. In fact, “ Roland Weary [he] saves [had been saving] Billy for days, (34). Thus exhibiting Billy’s asinine behavior. He is not able to save himself. In fact, he is not even trying to save himself. Somehow, he always wants to be told what to do. He doesn’t seem to think for himself and doesn’t care. That is why when a [German] photographer wants something more lively, though, a picture of an actual capture. So the guards staged one for him. They throw (threw) Billy into shrubbery. When Billy came out of the shrubbery, his face wreathed in goofy good will, they menaced him with their machine pistols, as though they were capturing him then.”(55). People, use him anyway they desire to and when they do not acquire his assistance, turn against him. Due to this fact

When traveling from place to place in time and to those horrible memories of the Dresden bombing, Billy accepts and acknowledges the war trauma. For the first time, he exposes emotion of sadness. The epigraph “ The cattle are lowing, The baby awakes,/but little lord Jesus/ no crying he make,” Portrays’ how Billy does not show off his pain but cries in silence similarly to baby Jesus from this epitaph. When older in age and after recovering from the Vermont plane crash, he decides to go to New York and “ gets [got] on an all-night radio program devoted to talk. He tells [told] about have come unstuck in time,” (25). He wants the world to recognize about the Tralfamadorians and their perception on time and memories. The fact that he emphasizes and takes action to acknowledge this view is shocking. He realizes he is being called crazy by his own daughter yet he insists, “he [Billy] insists mildly that everything he had said was true.” (26). At this point Billy develops into character, with a voice to it. He stands up for what he believes which is quite remarkable. This change and a new color added to Billy occurs due to his new found theory which gives him a reason to stand up for himself. There is not much change Billy brings to the time and memory theory believed by all humans but the