1. Book Report- Slaughter House-Five
Author Kurt Vonnegut was very fortunate to have the bulk of his writing years occur during a time in history in which he wrote Slaughter House Five. If this book were written in present day, I fear it would be about as broadly circulated as a Kilgore Trout novel. Slaughter House Five is a fictitious as well as true narrative about WWII, of which the youth of this day have only an inkling of knowledge. Vonnegut's stark portrayal of war and its tragic aftermath would have been, at the time of its publication, a cathartic novel for those veterans suffering from leftover emotional scars received after serving their country some 20 years earlier. Vonnegut was asked by an old war buddy's wife not to glamorize war (pgs. 14-15), which he successfully complied with. Throw in a chronologically challenged story line, a few aliens, and time-travel, and you've got yourself a book that becomes more about its oddities than the spoils of war. Not the course of action I would take, but Vonnegut makes it work. .
Vonnegut's writing style is very casual, and the reader feels like the story is being relayed in conversation rather than written form. The book begins with an unknown narrator explaining what we're about to read. I reread the first chapter after finishing the book, and it's somewhat clearer now that it's a jumbled autobiographic account of Vonnegut's time spent in Germany during WWII and the process he went through write this book. Normally, this would be recorded in a book's foreward, but Vonnegut doesn't appear to do anything normal. Chapter 1 states many times we're about to read a book about Dresden; however, there is one clue that something is amiss when Vonnegut speaks of "someone playing with the clocks " and "as an Earthling " he had to "believe whatever clocks said " (pg. 20). Chapter 2, the actual beginning of the story explains that Billy, the protagonist, is a time-traveling WWII veteran.
His experiences there allowed him to write the novel Slaughter-House Five. In the book he serves as the narrator, observing, not only the calamities of those who held the status of prisoners of war, but the life of Billy Pilgrim in particular. ... Billy Pilgrim was an optometrist, which causes one to think about sight. ... Billy Pilgrim illustrates that love is good, and war is evil when he is captured by the Germans. "Billy looked up at the face that went with the clogs. ...
Author Kurt Vonnegut was very fortunate to have the bulk of his writing years occur during a time in history in which he wrote Slaughter House Five. ... Slaughter House Five is a fictitious as well as true narrative about WWII, of which the youth of this day have only an inkling of knowledge. ... Slaughter House Five. ... Pilgrim's Progress. ... ...
Author Kurt Vonnegut was very fortunate to have the bulk of his writing years occur during a time in history in which he wrote Slaughter House Five. ... Slaughter House Five is a fictitious as well as true narrative about WWII, of which the youth of this day have only an inkling of knowledge. ... Slaughter House Five. ... Pilgrim's Progress. ... ...
The novel, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, follows the life of Billy Pilgrim. February 13, 1945 was when the German city of Dresden was bombed, but Billy survived the awful experience. ... This alien world is called Tralfamador and it provides Billy with an escape. ... "I, Billy pilgrim, the tape begins, will die, have died and always die in February thirteenth, 1967." (180) At this he is in Chicago giving a speech and, seemingly unafraid of death, Billy states to his audience that it is time for him to be dead for a little while. Billy is then shot by a laser gun. ...
The main character is Billy Pilgrim who is actually Kurt Vonnegut himself. Vonnegut, like Billy Pilgrim, emerged from a meat locker beneath a slaughterhouse into the moonscape of burned-out Dresden. ... In chapter two Billy Pilgrim believes that he has "come unstuck in time." ... She arrives at his house with the newspaper in hand, unable to get Billy to talk sense. ... The two Americans are brought to a house full of other captives. ...
If you have ever read the novel Slaughterhouse Five, you might be left asking yourself, who really is Pilgrim? ... This leads to the question of, is Billy Pilgrim just a character from a Kilgore Trout novel? ... On page 174, Trout believes that Billy saw through a time window, another idea that only Billy is crazy enough to believe. ... Is it possible to say that Billy Pilgrim might just be one of these people, not likely. ... This does leave you wondering though, who really is Billy Pilgrim? ...
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. ... Chapter Two "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." ... Weary and Billy catch up to the scouts. ... Suddenly, Weary realizes that they are being watched by five German soldiers and a police dog. ...
"Slaughter House Five" is his greatest example of this. ... Billy Pilgrim experienced exactly what Vonnegut did in his own life. In many ways Vonnegut used Billy Pilgrim as a puppet to explain his own feelings and emotions from that time. ... This is very prominent in both "Slaughter House Five" and "The Sirens of Titan". ... "Slaughter House Five" was among the most successful of all his works. ...