Vonnegut's Views Of War In Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five Essay

Slaughterhouse-Five or the children's crusade by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character Billy Pilgrim stands to show what goes on in war. Vonnegut, also a war survivor in Dresden, started writing Slaughterhouse-Five or the children’s crusade in order to show how he lived life and used Billy Pilgrim to show his beliefs on war. Vonnegut uses strange writing tactics throughout the book, such as using child like tone in a war book. He evidence his views upon war within the book multiple times. Vonnegut generally opposes war. He also inputs a lot of sarcasm inside of this novel, this tends to make him sound insane. Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians to answer certain question a human doesn’t know because the Tralfamadorians aren't restricted by time. Billy remains unstuck in time and often time jumps inside the novel between wars; even to the point of definite death. Vonnegut uses Billy like God used Adam, and Eve to demonstrate certain actions and consequences.

Vonnegut said, “wars as easy to stop as a glacier”, which remains very ironic and incomparable. How can Vonnegut compare a raging war to an iceberg, these hold two different things which bring up the questioning whether he remains sane or insane? There lives no ending war no matter where you go war remains always there. His novel inhabited with clever little detailed hints. As a reader we can easily define his words and notice that he remains to continue ironic behavior. Once noticing his irony we can prove his belief in wars throughout the story. Vonnegut believes wars can’t be preventable, however he believe they can inhabit less destructive. When Vonnegut time jumps in his book he illustrates that throughout the time he’s in, in doing so he prov...

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...es like,“So it goes” and at the end of certain sentences repeating certain words in the paragraph. He not only showed the evils war can bring, he also referenced the good that comes out of the war. He demonstrates the effect of war to many people by adding different characters like Edgar Derby, or Roland Weary who remained affected in a negative way in the war. Vonnegut wants the reader to feel as if he or she aren't bound by predetermined destiny, he want them to write their own destiny. He evidence this by making several mistakes with Billy in this novel to show us the outcomes from someone who can time jump. Vonnegut makes his readers feel as if they stand truly limitless.

Work cited page

Vonnegut,Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. The random house publishing, 1969. Print

Vonnegut, Kurt. "Salem Press." Salem Press. Jerome Klinkowitz, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.