Westbrook's Literary Criticism Of Kurt Vonnegut

It is a perfect example because the story takes place in an environment of integral conformity and describes a scene of pure deviance where Vonnegut’s disseminated strong messages. By analyzing Vonnegut’s short story with the help of both “The social animal” by Eliott Aronson and “Wayward Puritans” by Kai T. Erikson we will point all the wrong aspects of perfect conformity in a first paragraph. And, in a second paragraph, we will discuss more about the importance of deviance by analyzing the last scene.

Vonnegut exercised a minimal and comical style of writing to communicate his views against war. His experience in high school and

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” is a sardonic novel chronicling the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran, survivor of the Dresden firebombing, and protagonist of the novel. Billy is a very unreliable narrator who has become “unstuck in time”. Billy is constantly journeying through time; at one moment he’s a flourishing optometrist and the next he’s a prisoner of war in Germany. Billy is forced to deal with an existential crisis presented forth by the great destruction he witnesses. These horrible atrocities that Billy encounters (bombing of Dresden, execution of Edgar Derby, etc.); however, are all really means to an end. They expose Billy to a contrast, that is, a way in which he can assess his own life and search for meaning. Life and being are seldom questioned. Billy is unique. He watches as thousands of lives are extinguished and he can only wonder “why?” The fact of the matter is, there is no answer. There is no reason why. Billy cannot understand this, which, ultimately, leads to his acceptance of the Tralfamadorian view that nothing has any meaning at all.

Kurt Vonnegut’s background had an endless influence upon his writing. In his early years, Vonnegut was a private in the 106th infantry division in World War II. He and five scouts were caught behind enemy lines, and then captured. They were held POWs and were beaten on various occasions. In 1945, they witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Kept during this time in a slaughterhouse, this is part of the inspiration for Slaughterhouse-five. After being released from the Slaughterhouse, Vonnegut called Dresden “utter destruction” and “carnage unfathomable”. This distressing time in his life led to one of the many themes of Slaughterhouse-five which is that nothing good can come from war and a massacre. This theme

And how can you say a man had a good mind when he couldn’t even bother to do anything when the best-hearted, most beautiful woman in the world, his own wife, was dying for lack of love and understanding’” (48). Martin mocks the prevailing notion that Felix is a harmless, playful innocent. Vonnegut depicts how people admire Felix because he is not influenced by materialistic values. However, Martin correctly points out that he does not deserve praise for not desiring the values that drive others. Thus, Vonnegut persistently allows for subjugation of Felix’s family members and permits the perpetuation of his diabolical atrocities. While Vonnegut obscurely elicits Felix’s “destructive” innocence, he blatantly illustrates Lowe Crosby’s conceitedness.

      Marked by two world wars and the anxiety that accompanies humanity's knowledge of the ability to destroy itself, the Twentieth Century has produced literature that attempts to depict the plight of the modern man living in a modern waste land. If this sounds dismal and bleak, it is. And that is precisely why the dark humor of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. shines through our post-modern age. The devastating bombing of Dresden, Germany at the close of World War II is the subject of Vonnegut's most highly acclaimed work, Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death. Vonnegut's experience as an American POW in Dresden

Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view

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.

Vonnegut makes use of condescending language in order to construct a distraught situation. Throughout the story, “Harrison Bergeron”, the author adheres to diction as a way to express his conception. Often times, he’ll use comprehensible adjectives to describe what’s occurring. For example, when explaining the circumstance where the son was removed from the family, he justifies that, “it was tragic, all right”( Vonnegut 1). Rather than supporting his accusations with phrases, he interprets the situation with a straight to the point approach.

Ask a child how they would describe a soldier, they would describe them as brave, strong, and just, but unknown to these children. These valiant heroes of justice are at a ripe old age of eighteen. The media portrays soldiers in a way to make them seem like they are stoic and strong fighters that are the servants of Mother Liberty. In Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse-Five, he conveys a message through the experiences of Billy Pilgrim and his pilgrimage around time and space, with the masterful use of diction and irony.Vonnegut’s message is that war is a horrific place not properly described by the media and not meant for the wrongly portrayed soldiers.

Context: It is an imaginative fantasy, in which the exact date and time are not clearly established, as is common with science fiction. The novel's plot reflects the cold war atmosphere of the early 1960s. Vonnegut uses irony, satire, and mockery throughout the course of the novel to prove his points and to capture the audience’s attention.

In “God Bless You Mr. Vonnegut: Learning Civics from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.” Paul J. Ramsey discusses recurring themes in the works of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. One major theme that occurs throughout Vonnegut’s work is how informal social norms such as dehumanization and apathy towards suffering perpetuate violence. This occurrence is explored in several science fiction stories: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, "A Party Down at the Square" by Ralph Ellison, as well as Vonnegut’s own "Harrison Bergeron” and “Welcome to the Monkey House”. The dehumanization and objectification in these stories is a relevant and accurate critique of informal social norms in society and an effective examination of how such norms spread violence.

Sex is another element Vonnegut satirizes. Perhaps not to caution, but to reveal the twisted ways in which our current society treats sex. No doubt seen in every form of media and in every war, this theme can be found in Slaughterhouse-five and

Even though at the beginning of the novel Vonnegut confesses that his story is ‘pretty much true’, apart from that he portrayed Billy’s story filled with fictional events, people and places. At the same time, the novel’s fantasy world intrudes into ‘reality’ with the autobiographical first

Through critical analysis, historical research, and textual evidence, a study on Kurt Vonnegut’s background will be conducted in order to display the effects that the era in which he lived had on his writing.