Many writers in history have written science fiction novels and had great success with them, but only a few have been as enduring over time as Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five is a personal novel which draws upon Vonnegut's experience's as a scout in World War Two, his capture and becoming a prisoner of war, and his witnessing of the fire bombing of Dresden in February of 1945, the greatest man-caused massacre in history. The novel is about the life and times of a World War 2 veteran named Billy Pilgrim. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses structure and point of view to portray the theme that time is relative. .
The way Kurt Vonnegut structures Slaughterhouse-Five aids in the portrayal of the theme that time is relative. The novel is broke down into two parts, Vonnegut's story about the novel and the life story of Billy Pilgrim. The life story of Billy Pilgrim, which is presented as a series of episodes with no chronological order. This mirrors the structure of the novel, which has a beginning, middle, and end, but not in their respective places. (Dawley 1) Billy states numerous times in the novel that he has becomeunstuck in time? and that the time travel periodsaren't necessarily fun?. (Vonnegut 23) While the reader never leaves the main plot line of the firebombing of Dresden for very long, Billy still travels a lot. Billyhas seen his birth and death many times? andall the events in between?. (Vonnegut 23) The reader learns thatthe things Billy Pilgrim? cannot change arethe past, the present, and the future?. (Vonnegut 60) Many of the time warps are to his later-life as an optometrist. During his life as an optometrist, he marries one of his professor's daughters. Even though Billy knows ahead of time, because he hasseen? the future before it happens, he knows that he is only marrying her to get funding from her father to start his own company. More of the time travels Billy has take him to his time on the planet Tralfamadore.
