The pacifist author Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five in the late 1960's as the Vietnam War was ending. ... Vonnegut, like Billy Pilgrim, emerged from a meat locker beneath a slaughterhouse into the moonscape of burned-out Dresden. ... In a taxi on the way to the Dresden slaughterhouse that served as their prison, Vonnegut and O'Hare strike up a conversation with the cab driver about life under communism. It is to this man, Gerhard Muller, as well as to O'Hare's wife Mary, that Vonnegut dedicates Slaughterhouse-Five. ... While teaching at the Iowa Writer's Works...

• Word Count: 5323
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: High School

The men could not think of any particularly good memories or stories, and the narrator noticed that Mary, Bernard's wife (to whom Slaughterhouse Five is dedicated), seemed very angry about something. ... It has been a couple of years since I first read Slaughterhouse Five, and I'm glad I got the chance to read it again. ... Suddenly, Weary realizes that they are being watched by five German soldiers and a police dog. ...

• Word Count: 7795
• Approx Pages: 31
• Grade Level: High School