Analysis Of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five; providing details that indicate both Vonnegut and his protagonist Billy Pilgrim suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Vonnegut spent several decades trying to write about his experiences during World War II. Slaughterhouse-Five is Vonnegut’s most noted literary work about his service in the army. The book opens with the statement, “All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true” (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five). Vonnegut admits that the character’s names were changed. However, he does use the true name of a war buddy, Bernard V. O’Hare.

In the novel, Vonnegut introduces the reader to his protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. The story uses time travel to give the reader a glimpse into different segments of Billy’s life, not just the war part. Vonnegut (1969) writes, “Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren’t necessarily fun.” Vonnegut (1969) writes that Billy first became “unstuck in time” during the war. After his regiment was destroyed by the Germans, Billy was a dazed wanderer behind enemy lines (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five). During that era, Billy’s condition would have been called “shell shock” or “battle fatigue” (McClellend). Today, veterans that are suffering from psychiatric issues are diagnosed with PTSD. After reading Vonnegut’s novel, essays, and his own family members’ personal accounts, it is evident that both Vonnegut and his protagonist suffered from PTSD.

PTSD is as old as war itself (McClellend). PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after a person lives through a horrible event, such as a war. During a traumatic event, a person’s nervous sy...

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...he weight of something…not even his wife understood” (Hicks). Pilgrim’s daughter, Barbara, had to deal with her father’s stories about being kidnapped by aliens (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five).

Each man was trying in their own way to deal with the stress from the traumatic events in their lives. Vonnegut chose to write science fiction novels to expel his demons. Mark, Vonnegut’s son, stated that Vonnegut became a writer to come to terms with what happened in World War II (Wolisnky). Mark went on to say, “Art gives you the resilience to survive mental illness (Wolisnky). Pilgrim dealt with his trauma by escaping in a world of science fiction on Tralfamadore. He believed that sharing the knowledge which he had gained from his little green friends on Tralfamadore with the world would save the earthling souls that were “lost and wretched” (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five).