Slaughterhouse Five Satire

     Critics of Kurt Vonnegut’s are unable to agree on what the main theme of his novel Slaughterhouse Five may be. Although Vonnegut’s novels are satirical, ironical, and extremely wise, they have almost no plot structure, so it is hard to find a constant theme. From the many people that the main character Billy Pilgrim meets, and the places that he takes us, readers are able to discern that Vonnegut is trying to send the message that there will always be death, there will always be war, and humans have no control over their own lives.

While talking he realizes “You know--we’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. ‘My God, my God--’ I said to myself, ‘It’s the Children’s Crusade’” (Vonnegut, 135). In this quote, Vonnegut comes to the realization that “babies” fight wars, not the aging men he and the public believes fights them. A less common known name of Slaughterhouse-Five is The Children’s Crusade which is an unambiguous critique on the age of those who make up the war effort.

The humor found in Slaughterhouse is full of satire, creating laughable scenes that embody unconventional humor. When Billy Pilgrim is drunkenly searching for the steering wheel of his car “He was in the backseat of his car, which is why he couldn't find the steering wheel"(Vonnegut 48). This scene creates dark humor; while it is funny that he is looking for something where he clearly won’t find it, depicts the derangement and detrimental effect war causes on the mental stability and capacity of its participants such as Billy Pilgrim. The Gutless Wonder is Kilgore Trout’s book about a ruthless killing robot that people dislike due to his bad breath; ignoring the fact the he is a remorseful killer. This satirizes human morals depicting its shallowness in caring more about physical attributes than personal ones. Vonnegut first and foremost satirizes the idea of war. The alternate title for Slaughterhouse Five, Children’s Crusade, emphasizes youth of most soldiers; they are closer to babies than men capable of a

The point of view that Slaughterhouse-Five is written from also affects the way the reader fells about time after reading the novel. Since the story is narrated by a omniscient being that is everywhere with Billy Pilgrim, the reader gets a first hand account of every event in his life. Also Billy is very relaxed and accepting all things around him. A good example of this is Billy's habit of following every death with "so it goes". (Vonnegut 69) The repetition of this phrase not only de-emphasizes death, but also helps Vonnegut assert control over the readers response after a death. (Dawley 2) The way Billy

Slaughterhouse-Five book is antiwar novel, and it written by Kurt Vonnegut. A man named Billy Pilgrim who is unstuck in time, and always goes all relives various occasions throughout his life. Billy pilgrim is a main character in this book. “Billy is born in 1922 in Ilium, New York. He grows into a weak and awkward young man, studying briefly at the Ilium School of Optometry briefly before he is drafted” (Borey 1). Then, after training he sent to the Germany during the war. Billy acknowledges diverse values and sees horrible and morbid occasions in a different contrast to others. Billy experiences acknowledges a lifestyle that is not visible to other people. Many readers would contend that Billy's encounters make him crazy; however,

Vonnegut includes himself in scenes within Slaughterhouse-Five to portray an “author-as-character” unique style. It is in the tenth chapter when Vonnegut switches points of view to reveal himself as one of the soldiers alongside Billy.

Again, Matheson points out the problem immediately by saying, “the first… [problem] is encountered in the unusual opening chapter where Vonnegut, apparently speaking as himself, gives an account of the novel’s genesis that cannot help but strike us initially as being carelessly written”(Matheson 1). Matheson is not fond of Vonnegut’s work, he not only dislikes the fact that there is not a single meaning to the book, but also the creative and eccentric style Vonnegut used in writing Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five is semi-autobiographical; the first and the last chapters are written in first person, and there are many similarities between Vonnegut’s life, and Billy Pilgrim’s life. In the first chapter Vonnegut identifies himself as the author when he is speaking to his friend on the phone by saying, “‘Listen— ’I said, ‘I’m writing this book about Dresden’”(Vonnegut 4). Critics seem to dislike the use of first person and the identification of the author because it is “irrelevant…[and leads] nowhere”(Matheson 1). The first person point of view comes back in the last chapter when Vonnegut says, “Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round, was shot two nights ago”(Vonnegut 210). Vonnegut uses first person not to be annoying to critics, but to remind the reader that he experienced all of the events in his book, “more or less”(Vonnegut

War is a tragic experience that can motivate people to do many things. Many people have been inspired to write stories, poems, or songs about war. Many of these examples tend to reflect feelings against war. Kurt Vonnegut is no different and his experience with war inspired him to write a series of novels starting with Slaughter-House Five. It is a unique novel expressing Vonnegut's feelings about war. These strong feeling can be seen in the similarities between characters, information about the Tralfamadorians, dark humor, and the structure of the novel.

Disney’s Zootopia is About Los Angeles Crack Cocaine Rage Disney is considered a child friendly company with happy movies that entertains children. Within these movies are good lessons to learn, such as follow your dreams, be true to yourself, and drugs are horrible so never do them. However, in 2016, Disney made Zootopia. It is a bunny cop movie with a mystery as to why the predators are going savage. Spoiler warning: it is because of a deadly serum called Night Howlers.

Slaughterhouse Five explores multiple themes through the relationship Billy Pilgrim and Paul Lazzaro. The author uses their relationship to represent the theme that free will is an illusion and that dignity is the most important thing to the human race. Kurt Vonnegut uses the literary techniques of repetition, flashbacks, and irony. Throughout the novel Kurt Vonnegut repeats the words “so it goes.

Satire is an important part of postmodernism and it is one of the most prominent aspects of Vonnegut’s novels, with his humor manifesting itself as a form of black humor. With his very dark sense of humor, Vonnegut confronts many of the negative aspects of the world and describes them in such a way that it disarms and desensitizes the reader to the shock of what they are reading. Slaughterhouse-Five is an excellent example of this. When describing the shock and horror that Billy witnessed during the firebombing of Dresden, Vonnegut takes the time to describe “Weary and Wild Bob and Rumfoord,” characters who “find glory in wholesale death and destruction” (Cox 272). In writing his response to the horrors of war, Vonnegut takes the approach that it is better to make the reader laugh at something and have them slowly realize the horror of what they have read, as opposed to immediately shocking the reader by presenting gory details of his experiences in Dresden. Even the name of his main character is subtle black humor. Billy Pilgrim, whose name is “a reference to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and connotes that Vonnegut’s pilgrim is an average joe burdened with a life of agony and terror” (F1). His name is also in reference to Vonnegut’s feeling that the Second World War was a war fought by mere children, hence the book’s subtitle The Children’s Crusade. The idea of young men who were no more than children in essence when they were sent off to fight and die in a foreign land is a distressing and horrible idea for many people to think about. Yet through his humor Vonnegut forces the reader to come to terms with this, but in a way that eases a reader into the darkness of the novel instead of running into it head on. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut does not limit his black humor to the topic of war, but also opens up criticisms of society as he sees it. Through the Tralfamadorian aliens that kidnap Billy and take him captive on their planet and the science fiction of Kilgore Trout, Vonnegut uses his humor in regards to a variety of topics not related to war. Once such example of Trout’s novels that are throughout the story is “The Gospel from Outer Space in which a visitor from outer space studied

In an interview on Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut states, “I worked as a miner of corpses, breaking into cellars where over a hundred thousand Hansel and Gretels were baked like gingerbread men” (“Vonnegut”). Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007), born during the Modern Age, wrote his first story in 1947, known as the Contemporary Period. The Modern Age was different from the Contemporary Period because of its focus on art while trying to connect with traditions in the world due to their desire to have a connection with a person or idea emotionally. The period after in literature, also called Post-Modernism, uses metaphors and symbols to emphasize the use of intrusions and was known for its breaking of tone, tendency to interrupt point of view, and

Absurd as a word is defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as “ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous” as well as “having no rational or orderly relationship to human life.” Absurdism is characterized by the tenets of “life’s absence of meaning removes any reason for living,” and “life’s lack of purpose affords us freedom.” The absurd is the notion that anything and everything in existence is incorrigible and ludicrous, leaving inhibitors of reality with the choices of coping with existence, revolting against existence, or escaping

Most great novels traditionally have one dynamic character with a strong personality that embarks on a prolonged pilgrimage. This character 's demeanor or life is changed forever as a result of an event or obstacle they are forced to overcome. However; Kurt Vonnegut 's Slaughterhouse Five breaks the mold of a traditional novel and blazes forward in a new and bizarre path. He uses a diverse cast of subordinate characters to make certain symbolic representations. Roland Weary, Paul Lazaro, and Edgar Derby are three minor characters in the story; while different they serve to demonstrate the ideas of hatred, greed, and patriotism.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is not a bad book. I will continue to admit that while the first chapter reminds me of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, the second chapter made up for all the annoyance that had started to accumulate since the beginning. I am going to do my best to make this response journal as coherent as possible, but I will admit that there are some components in this novel that I just cannot find the appropriate words for.