How Does Billy Pilgrim Use Satire In Slaughterhouse Five

SlaughterHouse-Five is a book about a man named Billy Pilgrim who is stuck in time, and constantly travels throughout different events in his life. Billy accepts different values and sees traumatic and morbid events differently than others. Billy accepts a way of life that is not perceivable to other humans. Many would argue that Billy’s experiences make him insane, but Billy’s experiences with the Tralfamadorians actually allows him to preserve his sanity, and stay a very intelligent man.

In order to illustrate the devastating affects of war, Kurt Vonnegut afflicted Billy Pilgrim with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which caused him to become “unstuck in time” in the novel. Billy Pilgrim illustrates many symptoms of PTSD throughout the story. Vonnegut uses these Slaughterhouse Five negative examples to illustrate the horrible and devastating examples of war. The examples from the book are parallel to real life experiences of war veterans, including Vonnegut’s, and culminate in a very effective anti-war novel.

Vonnegut is Kilgore Trout in the novel. The first line of the novel is “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time"(23). By using the word "unstuck", Vonnegut implies that Billy has now become free. Consequently, Vonnegut's narrative, as well as Billy,

In the book Slaughterhouse-Five the character Billy Pilgrim is a reflection of the author Kurt Vonnegut. He is said to become unstuck in time. But what does the author really mean by “unstuck in time?” The story begins after the bombing of Dresden, which caused PTSD that is very common in many people after being at war.

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 Two veteran named Billy Pilgrim. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses structure and point of view to portray the theme that time is relative.

Billy constructed Tralfamadore from his personal experiences in order to shield himself from reality. The building reminded him of Tralfamadore because that building was the basis of his imagined fantasy world. To cope with the humiliation Billy faces when the Germans “laughed and laughed” (90) at his appearance, Billy manipulated the situation,

People react differently to tragedies: some mourn, some speak up, and some avoid the sorrow. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut suggests the danger and inhumanity of turning away from the discomfort by introducing Billy Pilgrim as someone who is badly affected by the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, and the Tralfamadorians as the aliens who provide an easy solution to Billy. It is simpler to avoid something as tragic as death, but Vonnegut stresses the importance of confronting it. Vonnegut, like many artists, expresses his ideas through his creations. The significance of art is not confined to helping and inspiring the general public; the process of creating art also becomes another form of coping mechanism for artists.

Many people returned from World War II with disturbing images forever stuck in their heads. Others returned and went crazy due to the many hardships and terrors faced. The protagonist in Slaughter-House Five, Billy Pilgrim, has to deal with some of these things along with many other complications in his life. Slaughter House Five (1968), by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is an anti-war novel about a man’s life before, after and during the time he spent fighting in World War II. While Billy is trying to escape from behind enemy lines, he is captured and imprisoned in a German slaughterhouse. The author tells of Billy’s terrible experiences there. After the war, Billy marries and goes to school to

Through Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut protests his own feelings about war. Towards the beginning of the novel, Vonnegut visits his old wartime buddy, Bernard V. O’Hare and meets his wife, Mary. She is strangely already mad at Vonnegut because she assumed that he would write a war novel that will glorify the way men fight in wars when they actually send terrified babies off to war, not men. Mary also believed that war movies and books encouraged the chances of war. However, she was not directly angry at Vonnegut; she was angered by the thought of war and how babies are killing other babies on the battlefield.

The anti-war message is upheld further with the ironies that Vonnegut provides in the book. One example is "when one of the soldiers, a POW, survives the fire-bombing, but dies afterward from the dry heaves because he has to bury dead bodies" (Vit). When Billy and one of his comrades join to other scouts the Vonnegut portrays as well trained, Vonnegut displays irony by killing the skillful scouts and allows the less competent Pilgrim and Roland to survive. Roland does eventually die because he is forced to walk around in wooden clogs that turn his feet to pudding. The greatest example of irony is seen in what Vonnegut claims to be the climax of the story. He explains the situation before the story even begins. He is referring to the:

Kurt Vonnegut, an American author, explores the traumas and glamorization of war through his anti-war book: Slaughterhouse 5. In this book, the main character, Billy Pilgrim, tells about his time in Dresden serving in the army and the people he met while fighting for America. During the war in Dresden, Pilgrim experiences traumatic events that cause him to return home with PTSD. The PTSD eventually takes control of Pilgrim’s life and relationships. Pilgrim realizes this and understands that he should have never joined the army.

In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, the main character, Billy Pilgrim, is a man suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. He was forced into the battle of Bulge, and gets captures by the Germans. In the POW camp, he experiences “time-shifting”, and he has memories of many different moments in his life. He also goes to another planet, Tralfamadore, and meets the Tralfamadorians, who look like toilet plungers, and Montana Wildhack, his “mate”. Tralfamadore and Earth have many differences, and they allow two different perspectives on the book.

In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, a fictional character named Bill Pilgrim is used to depict the various themes about life and war. Vonnegut went through some harsh times in Dresden, which ultimately led to him writing about the tragedies and emotional effects that come with war. By experiencing the war first handed, Vonnegut is able to make a connection and relate to the traumatic events that the soldiers go through. Through the use of Billy Pilgrim and the other characters, Vonnegut is able show the horrific affects the war can have on these men, not only during the war but after as well. From the very beginning Vonnegut portrays a strong sense of anti-war feelings, which he makes most apparent through Billy Pilgrim.

Through the cruelty Billy experiences at the hands of the German soldiers, and the other terrible things he witnesses throughout the war Vonnegut explores the worst parts of human nature. With the same points he also questions whether humans have free will, and the plight of human suffering. Vonnegut’s unique writing style, and narrative structure structure give more meaning, and relatability to the story Billy Pilgrim by creating a truly mind boggling story that causes the reader to feel as if they themselves are there. Though Slaughterhouse Five is one of Vonnegut’s more well known works his legacy in the world of literature span far beyond one story. In the Vonnegut’s short story 2BR02B provides a similar dismal view on the nature of man in regards to violence as well as criticizing other various aspects of humanity. In addition critical essays about Slaughterhouse Five, such as “Slaughterhouse Five and the Comforts of Indifference” by Barry Chabot, sheds light on another terrible piece of human nature by exploring capacity to justify anything. The holistic evaluation of all these different works is necessary to fully grasp Slaughterhouse Five and Kurt Vonnegut, “a man who is admiring of man but also disappointed in him” (John Stewart, The Daily Show September 23, 2005).

The themes are referenced directly when Billy had gone through the bombing of Dresden, and is also shown metaphorically when Vonnegut compares warfare to glaciers. Many factors throughout the novel also support the structure and writing style of Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five. The plot frequently changes direction in different moments of Billy’s life is one argument for this case, but even the portrayal of Vonnegut himself as Billy having gone through these wars must have affected him psychologically. All of these events and psychological effects are significant because they explain why Vonnegut writes in the manner that he does, and how he incorporates his own anti-war and determinist