S Cradle And Slaughterhouse-Five, By Kurt Vonnegut

Without a doubt, war is an experience that can define a person, for good or bad. In the case of author Kurt Vonnegut, his experiences in World War II greatly affected his writing. Most of his works in his long bibliography of novels, articles, short stories, and plays have some sort of reference or allusion to war or other world conflicts. Kurt Vonnegut uses his novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five to preach against war by stringing together loose and outlandish story lines in a satirical and melancholy fashion.

Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, ironically on Veteran’s Day, 1922. He studied at Cornell University until his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. While in the army as an advanced infantry scout, he “was captured by the German army during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944” (“Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.”, 2). His time as a prisoner of war was highly influential on his life and writing. Many of his characters would go through similar experiences as he did. During his time in the Dresden jail, he, unlike many others, survived “the Allied firebombing that destroyed that architectural treasure and killed between 70,000 and 180,000 civilians” (“Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.”, 20). On the topic of the infamously unsuccessful bombing, Vonnegut has said that "‘only one person benefited,’ he recalls today. ‘And that was me. I got five dollars for every man, woman, and child killed.’" (“Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.”, 2). His experience in Dresden during the firebombing inspired his novel Slaughterhouse-Five which catapulted him into literary fame. “During the 1960s Kurt Vonnegut emerged as one of the most influential and provocative writers of fiction in America” (Westbrook, 1).

One of the most over-anaylized aspe...

... middle of paper ...

..., is the dwarf son of a highly influential American scientist that worked on the creation of the atom bomb. Vonnegut cleverly names the character Newton in obviouse reference to famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton. Vonnegut connects Newt to science even further:

Newton's deformed body may appear to be the biological result of some nuclear irradiation… but it is rather the product of his father's preoccupation with inventing atomic weapons and carelessness with regards to his children. Newton's small body, which invites the verbal abuse from his peers, originates from his own family. The science fiction of the same period saw the birth of boy-robots depicted as freakish and therefore alienated even from their producers… Vonnegut's Newton is a human character who is transformed into the equivalent of a scientific invention through the writer's narratology. (Fumika, 2)