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. ... 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 Workshop, Vonnegut lands a three-book contract, of which Slaughterhouse-Five is the first. ... It reads: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to c...

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