slaughter house five
Vonnegut's When one begins to analyze a military novel it is important to first look at the historical context in which the book was written. On the nights of February 13-14 in 1944 the city of Dresden, Germany was subjected to one of the worst air attacks in the history of man. By the end of the bombing 135,000 to 250,000 people had been killed by the combined forces of the United States and the United Kingdom. Dresden was different then Berlin or many of the other military targets which were attacked during World War II because it was never fortified or used for strategic purposes and, therefore, was not considered a military target. Because of it's apparent safety, thousands of refugees from all over Europe converged on Dresden for protection (Klinkowitz 2-3). Dresden's neutrality was broken and the resulting attacks laid waste, what Vonnegut called, "the Florence of the Elbe." Kurt Vonnegut was a witness to this event and because of fate, had been spared. He wrote Slaughte!rhouse Five to answer the question that resounded through his head long after the bombs could no longer be heard. "Why me?"- a frequent question asked by survivors of war. Vonnegut was tormented by this question and through Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist i
en another human's life was blindly taken. After coming to newly understand the limits of human vision and the naivete of human-kind, namely that one can change what will happen and guide one's actions Billy felt no sympathy for death and made no attempt to right injustice and stop the atrocities of war. Although Billy finds peace in the many positive aspects of the Tralfamadorian mind-set, there also exist many negatives to his new vision. The many aspects of Billy's life which his new vision touch are clearly outlined in Slaughterhouse-Five. For example, whenever there is a tragic death or an entire city is destroyed Billy says what all Tralfamdorians say "so it goes." Billy does not feel remorse or anger when he hears of the war in Vietnam because it is just a frame in time, which has, is and always will happen. Just as the universe will be destroyed by the Tralfamdorians but no attempt is made to stop it. At one point in the novel Billy sees a war movie in reverse, he desc! n Slaughterhouse Five, he attempts to reconcile the guilt which one feels when one is randomly saved from death, while one's friends and loved ones perish. Billy Pilgrim's own life was spared, but was never able to live with himself knowing that so many others had died. The feelings of guilt which emerged from his having survived the bombing of Dresden and from Billy's fortunate escape from death under the shelter of the fifth Slaughterhouse haunted Billy through much of his life. Billy Pilgrim did not consider his survival a blessing, but a curse. A curse to be forced to live on with the guilt of survival. Billy Pilgrim faced such tremendous guilt, that he spent his entire life after Dresden trying to alleviate himself of it! iew one is not responsible for one's actions. Whatever will, or has happened will always happen and did always happen. There is no way to change the course of events. Everything is predetermined. Billy is told by the Tralfamadores (regarding Tralfamador) that: Today we do (have peace). On other days we have wars as horrible as any you've ever seen or read about. There isn't anything we can do about them, so we simply don't look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments (Vonnegut 101). The Tralfamadorians even now when and who will destroy the Universe, yet they make no attempt to stop it because in their eyes it cannot be stopped. Billy, by accepting the Tralfamadorian view, frees himself from the guilt which one feels when one is locked in time and responsible for one's actions. Billy Pilgrim grasps the Tralfamadorian philosophy and insists the Tralfamadorian world exists because it eliminates the "Why me?" question. Guilt is a feeling of responsi! But it does more than that. It's underlying theme is not just against the atrocities of Dresden but against all War. Vonnegut's unorthodox stylistic approach which lacks any sequential path, draws the reader deeper into the Tralfamadorian world. Although Vonnegut's character was able to reconcile his life to some extent, Vonnegut was not. Vonnegut was never able to answer his own "Why me?" but in truth a broader question exis
Some common words found in the essay are:
Billy Pilgrim, Billy's Tralfamadorian, Vonnegut Billy, Billy Tralfamdorians, Tralfamador Billy, War II, Tralfamdorians Billy, Children's Crusade, Pilgrim Billy's, Kurt Vonnegut, billy pilgrim, one's actions, children's crusade, tralfamdorian view, guilt billy's, billy's life, fire-bombing dresden, tralfamadorian view, tralfamadorian world, feelings guilt, responsible one's actions, tralfamdorian view comes, 198 tralfamdorian view, billy accepting tralfamadorian, tanner 198 tralfamdorian,
Approximate Word count = 2106
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
