Kilgore Trout

The author Kurt Vonnegut characterizes the structure of his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, as schizophrenic. The novel jumps to and from fragmented clumps of information without accordance to traditional chronological order. The unique jumpy structure and the representation of time exemplified by this structure transcend simply commenting on the senselessness of massacre and war. The schizophrenic representation of time experienced by Billy Pilgrim challenges the traditional American narrative presented

Insanity is generally described as being mentally deranged. They are unable to make conscious decisions on their own therefore they are placed in a psychological state that prevents normal behavior and perception. Slaughterhouse-Five explores the life of the protagonist Billy Pilgrim in a series of arbitrary events. As his life progresses, his insanity begins to progress and reveal more. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut introduces Billy Pilgrim who is ‘unstuck in time’ and creates Tralfamadore

The story of Slaughterhouse Five is about a man named Billy Pilgrim who goes through a series of strange events throughout his life time. And it all starts when he is in a war in Germany. Billy is resentful towards the war and he makes it clear that he does not want to be there. During the war, he becomes captured by Germans. Before Billy is captured, he meets Roland Weary. When captured, the Germans took everything from Weary, including his shoes so they gave him clogs as a substitute. Eventually

anti-war, not pornography and nihilism. The vulgar manner of this book is used as a tool to make the reader laugh not to offend anyone. For example when Kilgore trout, Billy’s favorite author is announcing that the kid that sells the most subscriptions to a newspaper will win a trip to "Martha's fucking Vineyard"(Vonnegut 212). Then A girl asks Trout if she can bring her sister, and he responds by saying, "Hell no, you think money grows on trees?"(Vonnegut 212). In any other circumstance, using profanities

Billy Pilgrim as a Christ Figure in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse Five After reading the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., I found my self in a sense of blankness. The question I had to ask myself was, "Poo-tee-weet?"(Vonnegut p. 215). Yet, the answer to my question, according to Vonnegut was, "So it goes"(Vonnegut p.214). This in fact would be the root of my problems in trying to grasp the character of Billy Pilgrim and the life, in which he leads throughout the

The Negative Portrayal of Women in Breakfast of Champions   Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions was written, as he says in the opening pages, "to clear my head of all the junk in there. . . . The things other people have put into my head, at any rate, do not fit together nicely, are often useless and ugly" (5).  Though Vonnegut wrote this book over twenty years after Simone de Beauvoir made her assessment of women's place in the world, his searing social critique shows that the position

does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.” (Chapter 4). Billy resigns himself to the Tralfamadorian philosophy that he has no control over his life and creates a make believe escape through the novels of Kilgore Trout and time-traveling hallucinations “So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe... Science fiction was a big help.” (Chapter 4) Billy Pilgrim's uncontrollable sobbing and erratic sleep patterns causes him to voluntarily enter

I have 3 main topics that I am going to do my best to stick too, but to emphasize my point on how confusing this book can be in terms of its organized disorganization, I will stray away from my plan. The three main topics that I plan to talk about you say? Oh yes! Those…I am going to discuss the themes of warfare and fate & free will as well as my favourite, the Tralfamadorians! Before I being to discuss those, I do want to mention a few little side notes. My first side topic is about the all-wonderful

Baruch Spinoza once said “Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves free, simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” He compared free-will with destiny and ended up that what we live and what we think are all results of our destiny; and the concept of the free-will as humanity know is just the awareness of the situation. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores this struggle

Kurt Vonnegut and His Influence Kurt Vonnegut was an American author from the mid-1900s. He wrote novels that influenced generations beyond his own and sent messages that were direly needed in his time and have continued to spread unto modern days. Vonnegut touched topics such as violence, war and racism and aspired to create an awareness amongst his society. Works such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions deal heavily with social issues and it is novels like these that helped Vonnegut