Kurt Vonnegut Essay

Kurt Vonneguts novel, Slaughterhouse tail fin appe ared on the list of Time magazines snow all succession lift out English language novels since 1923. Written in 1969, this novel is considered a classic and is also known as one of his best works. Slaughterhouse -Five spans the different time periods of the life of Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist. Vonnegut witnessed the Bombing of Dresden in World fight II, and this novel portrays the aftermath of the war. Vonnegut uses time travel as the plot of land device to portray hu small-armity conditions from an unusual perspective.He was a prisoner in the Battle of Bulge in December 1944 in Dresden, Germany as a battalion scout. In all likelihood, the bombing of Dresden saved him from being sent to the Auschwitz gas chambers. Vonnegut was among the few survivors that were taken as prisoners to a slaughterhouse during the war and he worked in a meat-locker under this slaughterhouse, making diet supplements for pregnant women . The title refers to the slaughterhouse where Billy stayed as the prisoner of war. Vonnegut combines science fiction elements along with human conditions in the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, to drive the show.Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of a man Billy Pilgrim who has come unstuck in time. This term refers to his surviving a plane crash where he suffers a minor brain damage. Vonnegut has created a satire on fatalism. He believes that no matter how distressing the situation of a man is he has the power to create his own reality through the sheer power of imagination. Billy Pilgrim experiences different time periods of his life especially his experiences of the World War II. The seemingly random happening of his life structures the thematic elements of the novel in an unraveling order.The novel examines many events in Billys life. This includes the death of his wife, his capture by the Nazis in World War II, and the unfortunate bombing of Dresden, which also became the inspiration of th is book. The major theme comprises of the narrative that depicts Billys difficult times in Dresden, the secondary theme that runs through is his easy and affluent life as an optometrist in the city of Illium, rude(a) York, which is a fictional stand-in for Troy, New York, the city of Schenectady, New York.This is the place where Vonnegut has based most of his novels. The fiction runs parallel to the story of Vonneguts own transition from the depressing years of 1930s, which was also the time period when The Great Depression occurred, to a well to do existence that followed. The satirical essence of the novel is portrayed by the repetitive diction, so it goes which Vonnegut uses to nominate death and dying whether it is of man, animal or the bubbles of champagne. He uses it to downplay the fact of mortality making it sound humorous and routine.Some would say that his writings are creepy, but the fact is that he wrote beautiful, bizarre and horrifying novels replete with dark humor , and that set him apart as a unique writer. In Slaughterhouse Five he uses words and phrases such as, mustard gas and roses to describe the rotting smell of a corpse, and the breath of an alcoholic. This novel explores the idea of fate, freewill and illogical constitution of human beings. In the first chapter the narrator apologizes about the fact that the novel is so short and jumbled and jangled and then goes on to explain the fact that in that location is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.The satirical tone and the dark humor is the alibi, which he uses to describe the horrific aftermath of bombings and war in general. There are tercet themes that he uses in Slaughterhouse Five. The first and foremost theme is the- War. He writes about the contrasts of war which is complete, beauty, humanity, innocence, humor etc. In Slaughterhouse Five just like his many previous novels, he says that war is bad for us and it is better to love one another and tolerate in peace, th an have wars.However, she doesnt use love as the contrast of war, since Billy Pilgrim was not shown as a man who is madly in love with his wife. Yet he chose to depict it in a light yet effective manner. An interesting contrast Vonnegut uses in his novels are differences between the characteristics of men and women. custody are shown as cruel and ready to he engage in war any time, and the females are the shields, playing the shock absorbers effect capably, as they are always engaged in trying to dissuade men from getting into wars.Women in Vonneguts novels are more humane, loving and have well wills. The most compelling theme is that we as people are like bugs trapped in an amber and in that respect are no whys to it. In a sequence in the novel, when Billy is trapped in Tralfamadorin Flying Saucer he asks, Why me? . Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this issue simply is . Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Billy was asked, and he recalls that he i n fact had a paperweight in his office, which was a change surface of polished amber with three ladybugs trapped inside it.Billy answers in affirmation and he is told Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why. (ibid pg. 76-77). This extraterrestrial experience of Billy is symbolic of the fact that we are physically stuck in this world with no choice over our circumstances. In Vonneguts novels there are no set themes or plot that follows the story of heroes, heroines or villains. As Ernest W. Ranly says that all the characters in Vonneguts books are comic, pathetic pieces, juggled about by some inexplicable faith, like puppets. (Riley, 1974, pg. 54).Vonnegut himself says in his book Hocus Pocus that if there is no one to take the blame for the bad happenings in the book, it can only recollect that the villain is God Himself or Herself or Itself or Whatever (Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus, 1990). Another significant theme is that there is no sp end, only man. Being a soldier is a myth as a soldier is just a puppet of war used to do as the war demands. He doesnt remain a human being anymore. Vonnegut expresses this thought most noticeably in this extract from the novel from the time when Billy was imprisoned in Dresden.When the three fools found the communal kitchen, whose main job was to make lunch for workers in the slaughterhouse, everybody had been waiting for them impatiently. She was a war widow. So it goes. She asked Gluck if he wasnt awfully new-made to be in the army. He admitted he was. She asked Billy Pilgrim what he was supposed to be. Billy said he didnt know. He was trying to keep warm. either the real soldier are dead. She said. It was true. So it goes. (Vonnegut 1969. Pg. 159). Another obvious theme is that death is inevitable.It also goes on to explain that life goes on, no matter what happens and who dies. The phrase so it goes occurs one hundred and six times throughout the novel it happens every time someone dies, to take away the seriousness of death and march on a humorous quality to its inevitable graveness. This book has different meanings for different people, as everyone would be likely to interpret its subtle messages in their own way. The point that Vonnegut wanted to make was that no matter what happens , we should retain our humanity.