Kilgore Trout

overpopulation. His unique and unparallel style includes outrageous and often unrealistic chain of event that are obviously symbolic and relevant to the story as well as the author’s attitude on a particular subject matter. For instance in describing when Kilgore Trout writes his stories, he does not save them

The novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is an American classic that centers on the life of Billy Pilgrim. There are three key phases in Billy’s life that Vonnegut focuses on: before World War II, during World War II, and after World War II. The main reason for Vonnegut to write this novel is not to show how war is evil, but to show how war influences the lives of the soldiers who have engaged in battle. In this essay, it will show how Kurt Vonnegut uses the life of Billy to represent the

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

Author Kurt Vonnegut, American Publish Date March, 1969 Genre(s) Black Comedy Science Fiction Satire War Metafiction Postmodernism Organization / Point of View Slaughterhouse Five is told through a third person limited point of view, yet the story does not follow the traditional chronological pattern of storytelling, but rather is told through a number of flashbacks and instances of time-traveling that occur. Characters - Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of the novel, is a veteran of World

Billy Pilgrim has not come unstuck in time; Billy has become a victim of violent warfare. Common to many soldiers of war, he has witnessed such horrific events during the bombing of Dresden that he has acquired Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In order to avoid the reality of his cruel life and of the war, Billy has become dependant on escapism. Through escapism he has created the planet of Tralfamadore and the Tralfamadorians. Billy Pilgrim has become a victim of PTSD after having served in the

disregards the possibilities a person has as long as he or she lives. In an interview, Vonnegut points out that he “resents” the promising ideas, the Utopianism, in science fiction (qtd in Simpson 261). This is disclosed in Breakfast of Champions, when Kilgore Trout indirectly

claims to travel through time and be abducted by aliens, but until the later chapters, there is no solid evidence as to whether it is real or just delusion. The truth about Billy’s tale is concealed until near the end of the book when he meets Kilgore Trout and finally some solid evidence shows that Billy’s unusual adventures are just delusions and insanity. In fact, the technique Vonnegut uses to conceal the truth is called an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is when the reader cannot

Billy’s mental illness shows suffering of post-traumatic stress After reading and studying Kurt Vonnegut’s novel of Slaughterhouse Five, I have concluded that Billy’s mental illness shows suffering of post-traumatic stress. While analysing different critics’ opinions and views on this, I found similar ideas while showing different viewpoints on what post-traumatic stress is and how Billy shows this. Billy Pilgrim is the protagonist in this novel where his primary source of post-traumatic stress

Dresden and when he drunk calls Billy at his house. These instances where he refers to himself in the novel bring a sense of reality to this science fiction novel. Another notable thing Vonnegut does is create a surrogate for himself in the novel, Kilgore Trout. This character shares a lot of relation to the author, such as both being science fiction authors and their writing of aliens. These two things that Vonnegut does is not usual in the sense of writing a proper science fiction novel, but the way

Slaughterhouse-Five tells us about true events such as the fire-bombing of Dresden, but it also presents a planet and with aliens who do not see things quite the way we do. There are many theories of what the meaning of the aliens and time jumps in this book are meant represent. The passage in question supports the explanation of Billy’s obsession with being abducted by aliens one night and having “time-jumps” throughout the book are his way of coping with his war memories. To begin, the first reason