My favorite aspect of this book was the way all of the themes worked symbiotically to create a very dynamic story. This book forced me to pay attention to the plot, something I can say about very few books. The complexity of Slaughterhouse-Five resided in the inability or unwillingness of Vonnegut to settle on a single theme or mode of discourse It took me until the end of the first chapter to discover what was going on; I even thought I had picked up the author’s edition by mistake. However, I soon realized that this was the intent of Vonnegut. The multiple themes all worked to discredit each other, but in doing so, it made me see that they could all work.
Ostensibly, if this book is autobiographical, it cannot also be science-fiction. However, for these two genres to coexist, Vonnegut manipulated and introduced themes. By introducing the theme of sight alongside Billy Pilgrim, I was initially led to believe that Vonnegut was a mad man and Billy was a soothsayer. As Pilgrim’s characterization progressed, I saw that Pilgrim suffered from PTSD and likely molded his surrounding so he could understand them and …show more content…
In many books about war, the enemies are dehumanized. However, in Slaughterhouse-Five, the enemies (even in the P.O.W. camps were distinctly human and unable to understand the unrealness of what was going on. By putting even the enemy on the same level as the allies, Vonnegut silently encouraged a fraternity rather than adversity between nations. As with the other themes, this antiwar message was subject to scrutiny. In the first chapter, the concept of writing an antiwar novel was compared to writing an “anti-glacier” book4, highlighting the futility of fighting an unstoppable natural force. By invoking such a recurring force, Vonnegut introduced fate to the book. The futile fight against fate was also noted by the mention of “so it goes” after every death and the comment of the
Ostensibly, if this book is autobiographical, it cannot also be science-fiction. However, for these two genres to coexist, Vonnegut manipulated and introduced themes. By introducing the theme of sight alongside Billy Pilgrim, I was initially led to believe that Vonnegut was a mad man and Billy was a soothsayer. As Pilgrim’s characterization progressed, I saw that Pilgrim suffered from PTSD and likely molded his surrounding so he could understand them and …show more content…
In many books about war, the enemies are dehumanized. However, in Slaughterhouse-Five, the enemies (even in the P.O.W. camps were distinctly human and unable to understand the unrealness of what was going on. By putting even the enemy on the same level as the allies, Vonnegut silently encouraged a fraternity rather than adversity between nations. As with the other themes, this antiwar message was subject to scrutiny. In the first chapter, the concept of writing an antiwar novel was compared to writing an “anti-glacier” book4, highlighting the futility of fighting an unstoppable natural force. By invoking such a recurring force, Vonnegut introduced fate to the book. The futile fight against fate was also noted by the mention of “so it goes” after every death and the comment of the