Slaughterhouse Five: A Warning Against War

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Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five; or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is, as suggested by the title, a novel describing a crusade that stretches beyond the faint boundaries of fiction and crosses over into the depths of defogged reality. This satirical, anti-war piece of literature aims to expose, broadcast and even taunt human ideals that support war and challenge them in light of their folly. However, the reality of war, the destruction, affliction and trauma it encompasses, can only be humanly described by the word “war” itself. Furthermore, oftentimes this term can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it firsthand. Therefore, in order to explain the unexplainable and humanize one of the most inhumane acts, Vonnegut slants the hoarse truth about war by extrapolating it to a fantasy world. Through this mixture of history, reality and fantasy, Vonnegut is able to “more or less” describe what he believes truly happens in war yet, at the same time, reveal a greater truth about humanity's self-destructive war inertness. Vonnegut's use of fantasy in Slaughterhouse-Five unveils mundane war misconceptions as it rallies action against war through a comparison and contrast between the Tralfamadorian world and philosophy and Billy Pilgrim's existence and war experiences.
Slaughterhouse-Five is filled with scenes that seem absurd and ridiculous and invite the reader to chuckle; Tralfamadore falls short to the appeals of human reason and logic, highlighting the war scenes that also fall short to the englorious posters of military propaganda. Billy Pilgrim embodies all the characteristics that are not desirable in a soldier; his appearance and skill causes disillusion, pity and mockery, instead of ...

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...Slaughterhouse Five, serves as much more than a just a Sci-Fi element in a war novel; it is a portal into the nonsensical and destructive nature of war meant to invite the reader to adopt an active stance against war. The realities of war have long been tainted by history, retailing the brutal events as a saviour’s tale full of honour, glory and patriotism. However, the truth sits far away from the textbooks and scholars. Those who have marched, fought and survived that blood thirsty, chaotic development can testify to its destructiveness. However, the absurdity and trauma causes scars that lay in deep ravines logic cannot reach. Therefore, Vonnegut resources to a parallel planet, as his only means of explaining the unexplainable, in hopes of unveiling war's folly and shake his readers into action so that Earth does not become a planet full of futile toilet plungers.

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