Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most….
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death
Kurt Vonnegut
When one begins to analyze a military novel it is important to first look at the historical context in which the book was written. On the nights of February 13-14 in 1944 the city of Dresden, Germany was subjected to one of the worst air attacks in the history of man. By the end of … Read more
In many novels, the idea of time is handled in different ways to keep the story at a smooth pace. Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, uses time as a way to give the reader an idea of what his main character’s life was like and what he had gone through throughout his life. Vonnegut’s … Read more
The Horror of War Exposed in Slaughterhouse Five When one begins to analyze a military novel it is important to first look at the historical context in which the book was written. On the nights of February 13-14 in 1944 the city of Dresden, Germany was subjected to one of the worst air attacks in … Read more
The story told in Slaughterhouse Five is very much unique to its setting and the time in which it occurs. The story is told by Kurt Vonnegut, who is also a minor character in the book, about the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim during World War II. The story centers on a specific event that … Read more
However, Billy Pilgrim, the main character in the novel Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Opponent, is one such human. Blessed with a special gift of being able to walk through time and space unexpectedly by an alien race called Transformational (from a planet by the name of Thralldom), Billy Pilgrim encounters a variety of humorous, ironic, … Read more
In Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut uses satire in the topics of war, aliens, fate and the reasons for life itself. In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the author uses many literary devices to bring across his point including black humor, irony, wit and sarcasm. He mainly uses satire throughout the book. Satire is a literary device … Read more
Slaughterhouse Five The concept of a linear beginning, middle, and end in the progression of time is thrown askew in Kurt Evensong’s Slaughterhouses through Billy’s travels through it me and space. All people on earth experience a chronological progression of time; they expel irenic birth and death, and are able to perceive the consequences of … Read more
Vonnegut’s When one begins to analyze a military novel it is important to first look at the historical context in which the book was written. On the nights of February 13-14 in 1944 the city of Dresden, Germany was subjected to one of the worst air attacks in the history of man. By the end … Read more