Symbolism In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

As a result of the trauma of Billy's war experience, he faces an inability to deal with reality later in his life. The fantastical Tralfamadore is a planet where Billy escapes to when he feels life's stresses; however mad Billy seems to have become, Tralfamadore doubles to reveal Vonnegut's earnest fatalistic views. Tralfamadore is the

On page 85 the Tralfamadorians say “Trapped in another blob of amber, Mr. Pilgrim. We are where we have to be just now.” The tralfamadorians are saying that if Billy were anywhere else the moment would be different and wrong. It is important that he is where he is.

In the novel, Billy Pilgrim experiences things in his life he can’t control and he doesn’t feel comfortable in those situations. One of those experiences is when Billy is drafted for World War II. He obviously doesn’t want this because he has to give up his career as an eye doctor. When Billy goes into the war he is a chaplains assistant. This displays how he is not equipped with what he needs to fight and survive in the war; however, he does survive. The other soldiers that are fighting with the proper equipment end up getting killed. This situation in Billy’s life is significant because it shows his fate and how he doesn’t have free will to decide on his own. Against Billy’s will he went to war and survived when he shouldn’t have. Billy couldn’t

Once Billy becomes capable of time travel and comes into contact with the Tralfamadorians, he simply goes through the motions of life but avoids falling into a defeatist attitude. Under the tutelage of the Tralfamadorians, Billy fashions a brand new perspective towards society and enhances his natural persona, “When Billy accepts the Tralfamadorian philosophy, the passivity that he has displayed his entire life—from wanting to drift quietly at the bottom of the YMCA pool after his father throws him in, to begging Roland Weary to leave him behind—is justified. If the future cannot be changed anyway, why even try?” (Farrell 9). Though the interaction with the Tralfamadorians seems to allow Billy an outlet to construct his own ideals upon the universe, he nonetheless continues along the same path as before. Billy becomes an extremist towards passivity in life rather than utilizing the experience to impart a strong impression

Critics often suggest that Kurt Vonnegut’s novels represent a man’s desperate, yet, futile search for meaning in a senseless existence.  Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, displays this theme.  Kurt Vonnegut uses a narrator, which is different from the main character.  He uses this technique for several reasons.

“A piece a cake,” this is a phrase commonly used unlike the phrase “so it goes.” In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut the phrase “so it goes” is used 106 times. This three worded phrase does not seem like it has more meaning than the four worded phrase, “a piece a cake,” but it actually plays an important part in the novel. The phrase “so it goes” is specifically used after a person has died in the book, which occurs frequently. Vonnegut uses this phrase to demonstrate that whatever happens in life happens and so it goes.

This suggest that Billy’s experiences in the war can change and form experiences that are not necessary true. Billy thinks that his trip to Tralfamadore is true but it could be his way to escape his reality. Vonnegut and Billy could have compromise and try to make the novel more interesting. In the article How’s America’s leading Science fictions authors are shaping your future, explain how authors uses science fictions of all kind to explain the type of future we might or might not have. The article explains, “Every author who meticulously examines the latest developments in physics or computing, there are other authors who invent “impossible” technology to serve as a plot device”(2). Vonnegut uses the idea of time traveling with Billy who learn it from the Tralfamadorians. Vonnegut uses the impossible technology such as time travel to use in Billy’s experiences in the planet in

A war veteran, Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five as a response to the horrors he was subjected to as a soldier in WWII. Many authors are hesitant to dwell on depressing subject matters, but it was clearly very important to Vonnegut that people were not jaded by the media in regards to the violence and brutality he and millions of other soldiers experienced firsthand. It is possible that Vonnegut wanted people to question the point of warfare, and

Billy is a wealthy optometrist, also doubling as a veteran, who lives in New York with his children. Although not particularly strange, Billy claims that aliens named the Tralfamadorians have abducted him many times and shown him the fourth dimension in which they experience. This changes Billy's perspective on life, as he sees it as inevitable events because “all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist”, as seen on page 25. His perspective causes the tone of the writing to become rather indifferent, for the author's views Billy's events as fate instead of free will, and therefore Billy also does not seem rather harmed or happy about events in his life. This is because he thinks that his entire life is already happening on different parts of a timeline and cannot be controlled. He compares it to a mountain range because he can “look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of mountains”, where he can see “how permanent all the moments are”, seen on page 25. The indifferent tone in the piece reveals the theme of illusion of free will, because all moments are one and cannot be changed as the tone indicates, leading to the main character not caring what happens to him, whereas every other human who can't see in the fourth dimension thinks they have free

Additionally, Billy has gone through so much physical change from fighting in the war, to being an optometrist, to living on the planet of Tralfamadore; that life seems to have no simple path and he could live in one of these places at any point. His convoluted life continues to mess with Billy’s head, and simplicity and relaxation in his life are nonexistent. Billy’s distraught past continues to flow into the present, therefore, it is very hard for him to “keep going” (Page

Mr. Ivey assigns his tenth grade Honors English class a project in the fourth quarter of the semester each year. The project consists of a powerpoint presentation on an assigned book and a paper on the book containing a summary, a historical analysis, several scholarly analyses, and a personal opinion, among some other requirements. By chance, I selected the book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut from our list of options. With Slaughterhouse-Five’s quirky and ambiguous title, I was not sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by the impactful story that brought to light many social issues of war, such as PTSD. Vonnegut’s work amazed me with its disorderly structure and ability to fit into many genres. Mr. Ivey’s English project provided me a new appreciation for literature in which I learned to use authorial context, historical context, and personal context to develop my own meaning for a piece of literature.

The structure of this novel gives an idea of Billy’s mental state as it is in chronological order to him: “Billy's experiences as an American prisoner of war in Germany during World War II are told in more or less chronological order, but these events are continually interrupted by Billy's travels to various other times in his life”

Slaughterhouse Five is a book that employs heavy themes to make the reader to not only delve into a realm of thought but also into belief. The themes that the book seems to point to appear to be free will, and human nature. The book seems to portray the idea that we are all destined for something, and that no matter what choices we make it will always end the same. Due to this, Kurt litters the book with religious messages, catholic prayers, inferences to the old and new testament in the bible, and a very straightforward idea of a greater power (in this case the tralfamadorians), in order to make the reader question if there is in fact destiny, free will.

The Tralfamadorians, who explain this nature of time and existence to Billy, are shown as enlightened creatures while the humans back on earth are seen as backwards -- to such an extent that they believe in free will. Billy towards the end of his life becomes a preacher of these virtues of existence taught to him by his zookeepers on Tralfamadore, going around and speaking about his experiences and his acquired knowledge. This is ironic, because he is attempting to reverse the steady path of life, even time itself.

There are 3 themes in the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, that stick in the readers mind as they