Social Senselessness In Slaughterhouse-Five

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Heller utilizes such a wide range of characters to show the breadth of reactions to the incredibly dysfunctional situation, with each person attempting to maintain their personal sanity by whatever means necessary. Every character is extremely flawed, and by extension, human, all fighting indirectly against the system that places them in unnecessary danger. This message of administrative and social senselessness reflects both the system Heller himself served under during his tour, and the social context at the time of writing (1953-1961), after the Korean War, the Red Scare, and the gradual escalation in Vietnam. The enemy is not the Germans or the Italians or the Japanese, but the complete and utter disrespect for human life on both sides. As understood by the traditionally optimistic Clevinger during his court-martial for falsified charges, the only soldiers that truly hate him are those in command, not the Germans or Italians firing anti-aircraft shells at his plane. The “Hermann Goering Antiaircraft Division” was only doing their job; the American officers kept raising the required number of flights for personal glory, thus proving they care for …show more content…

Like Heller, Vonnegut, a renowned satirist and science-fiction author, based this work on his experiences fighting in Europe, but as an infantryman in France. Initially setting out to write a novelization of his war experiences, Vonnegut instead creates a brutally accurate account of imprisonment by German forces after the Battle of the Bulge and survival during the firebombing of Dresden, mixed with a surreal science fiction allegory of alien abduction and time travel. Furthermore, Vonnegut’s intent was to never glorify war or conflict, especially fought by young men with delusions of glory, inspiring the full title of “Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade; A Duty-Dance with

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