Ayn Rand's Slaughterhouse-Five

Decent Essays
I have just recently finished reading your novel Slaughterhouse-Five, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also enjoyed your sporadic writing style, it directly correlates to the plot of the book and is very unique from other authors. This book sparked my thinking of the fourth dimension and time itself. It also made me question if humans have free will or not. The reason I enjoyed this book so much was because it was the perfect balance between fiction and non-fiction. It was hard for me to see a connection between me and Billy, although I do share the same viewpoint that he does on human attitude. Far too often do we humans believe that our small problem is much larger than it really is. On the contrary, we should focus on the positive and step

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Throughout ? Slaughterhouse-Five?, Kurt Vonnegut uses the expression ? So it goes?. It usually follows a death no matter how it happened whether it be accidental, natural causes or the result of combat. ? So it goes?…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Billy is not only dismissive of life however, but also shows little regard for death, which is seen through the iconic line repeated throughout the entire novel, ‘So it goes’, which follows every time there is an account of death in the novel, whether it be fictional or…

    • 2049 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this book the government struck fear into the hearts of it's loyal citizens by harsh punishment for miniscule crimes an example of this is the saint of the pyre he was burned at the stake for a crime he committed and all he done was say the unspeakable word “they had torn out the tongue of the transgressor so that they could speak no longer”(Rand,50). The government wanted to let the people know that they were in control of every minute of their dull predetermined lives. And to do this they had to be sure that every person in their community was afraid of the consequences if they were to break a law or be different than everyone else. The government took out all leisure time from the people of the community because even as simple as it…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Totalitarian Society Over the history of the world there have been many different forms of government such as Totalitarianism, Monarchy, Republic, Communism and many others. One of the most widespread forms of government was Totalitarianism, though it is more rare today. Totalitarianism is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible. Totalitarianism has been shown in practically every country at some point with the exception of the United States and few other countries. Totalitarianism has been shown in real life,such as Nazism, but Totalitarianism is often shown in books, such as Anthem.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Collectivist societies can’t advance because they enforce everyone to think the same way. For example in the text when Equality tried to show the world council of scholars his new idea for a light source this is all they had to say in response to his idea “What is not thought by all men cannot be true… What is not done collectively cannot be good” (Rand 73). This shows that even when Equality created something that could’ve been helpful and innovative they still rejected his idea because he went against their classic collectivist ideals to make it. This indicates that they have embedded the idea in people’s minds that everyone needs to work together in order to create something that will be useful and beneficial in the society.…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Frightening Future Darkness leads to truth. Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, focuses on a curious character who slowly discovers the hidden secrets of The World Council, symbolically named Equality 7-2521. His bravery shines as he breaks laws and creates a new invention, light. The World Council of Scholars has let him down, and makes Equality feel foolish.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What do I want most in life? You can’t want something and not work for it. There are sacrifices and long journeys you need to make so you can be close to where you want to be. The books we reviewed are Anthem by Ayn Rand, ‘Emancipation Proclamation’, ‘Prometheus’. We also listened to an audio that went into a deeper meaning of what critical thinking is and had a Socratic Seminar.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the dystopia in Anthem something bad happened in the past. Something bad enough to make them completely restart and to control everything a person does. Everything from your job to what you do during the day is controlled. Something terrible must have happened in their past because why else would you remove technology and burn all the books? “We must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to 3 years in corrective punishment” (Rand, 19).…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The phrase “rules were meant to be broken” has held true for rebellious teenagers throughout time. But what if breaking the rules meant death or banishment? In the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, the protagonist Equality 7-251, lived in a “utopian” society. This society had many rules and inhibitions implemented in it in order to prevent individuality and selfishness and promote collectivism and unity. After Equality escapes into the forest, he sees himself creating his own society.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ivanna Guerrero English 2 September 9, 2015 Fate and Free Will in “Slaughterhouse-Five” The novel, “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, is about a war veteran named Billy Pilgrim who goes through war and at the same time goes back and forward in time to a moment in his life. He went from times he was in war, back to when he was an eye doctor, back to war again, then forward to when he was at home writing to the newspaper, back to war again, and so on. He went through hard times in life and good ones too, but ever since he went to Tralfarmadore he learned that if you can’t change time then free will doesn’t exist.…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Tom Ford once said, “We live in a material world. I 'm not saying that beautiful things don 't enhance our lives. But, in our culture, we 're never happy” (Brainy Quote). Simply put, Ford claims that the outside world is a tempting solution to problems that ultimately end up never satisfying, as the human race is never eternally happy. The idea of material wealth in society is present from Billy Pilgrim’s lifestyle in Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.…

    • 1353 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kurt Vonnegut, in his novel, “Slaughterhouse Five” recounts his experiences of World War II through Billy Pilgrim, the main character. Vonnegut’s purpose is to describe his wartime experiences and antiwar view. He adopts a complex and elusive tone in order to successfully engage and entertain his readers. Vonnegut begins his novel in the first person. We are given a first-person point of view in the sections embedded in the first and last chapters of the book.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “So it goes.” These three words convey the fatalistic mindset of Kurt Vonnegut through the voice of Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five. The strength of Vonnegut’s novel lies in his own personal experiences, as he himself was an American prisoner of war, was captured in Germany, and then was transferred to the city of Dresden. Throughout the novel, Billy Pilgrim suffers flashbacks of the horrors of war, specifically those associated with the bombing of Dresden. By narrating the novel through the voice of Billy, Vonnegut conveys his belief that war is absurd, exemplified by the causes and effects of the firebombing of Dresden.…

    • 1984 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut begins with our narrator (the author) trying to recollect his memories during the years of World War 2 as a POW in a meat/ slaughterhouse in Dresden, Germany. And seeing that this must have happened after the war the time span for Vonnegut must have been about 24 years as the war ended in 1945 with book the being published approximately in the year 1969. As he further elaborates his plan on how he would converse with his veteran friend O’Hare, he mentions of his “disease” and it’s symptoms which includes him calling “friends” late at night with an elegance/ grave tone having his “breath of mustard gas and roses”. The paradox as well as strong symbolism and imagery allows the reader to picture exactly how he was calling his mysterious friends, in a sweet and mellow tone but with a hint of toxicity like profanity at night (while being drunk). He states that he speaks “gravely and elegantly into the telephone”, the quote signals paradox which shows and allows the reader to picture the drastic change in his (drunk) tone while speaking to the operators/ “friends”.…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Irony and Satire In “Slaughterhouse Five” Before Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Slaughterhouse five” even begins, Vonnegut is described as “America’s greatest satirist”. Considering this title, Vonnegut must be well suited within the realm of satirical literature. Along with this sense of commanding satire, Vonnegut demonstrates a affluent abundance of irony. Throughout this book,Vonnegut’s novel “Slaughterhouse Five”, satire and irony are masterfully used to create an emphatic and hilarious anti-war novel that which has the likes of one nobody has ever seen.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays