Kurt Vonnegut uses imagery and manipulation of fiction to reveal truths about human nature we would deny. Cats Cradle and Slaughter-House Five are two examples of Vonnegut 's writings that use these skills to show the gory, but at times hilarious truths of war, science and reality. Although both novels have their plots and characters, they shared some common ideas and themes.
In the novel Cats Cradle, John the narrator sets out to research information for his book titled "The Day the World Ended". It was about the accounts of what important Americans did the day of the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Little did he know that through his research he learned much more. He met more people and learned more about the past of the …show more content…
"Billy is too ill and weak to be an active character. Instead, he is forced to watch terrible things happen, things that are so awful that they send him out of time (either truly or in his own mind) to experience his own death many years before it happens" (Vonnegut 2,25).Slaughter-House Five starts in 1944, Upstate New York. This is where Billy Pilgram attends optometry school, until he was drafted into the army where he is not a fully trained soldier, but a chaplin 's assistant. The novel time travels, bouncing back and forth between Billy during the war and pos war affects. Despite his lack of war ethics, Billy is deployed to Luxembourg to fight in the Battle of the Bulge against the Germans. Throughout the novel Vonnegut speaks about the war against Germany and the toll Billy payed for serving. Also, in the story Billy describes how he was abducted by aliens. It also explains the reality of what soldiers over seas go through everyday to say our country and …show more content…
For instance science; in Cat 's Cradle it was the atomic bomb and ice-9; in Slaughter-House Five it was Billy 's PTSD making him think he was abducted by aliens. Even the two examples are not in anyway similar to eachother, there are infrences that are. Cat 's Cradle and Slaughter-House Five both use bombs in there stories; the atomic bomb on Heroshima,Japan, and the firebombing of Deresded, Germany. Also, both main characters were wanting to write books about the wars, John and and Billy 's roommate Rumfoord. Another example is death in families. Not only did the mother, Valencia die in Slauhter- House Five, but also in Cat 's Cradle, Felix 's
In the novel Cats Cradle, John the narrator sets out to research information for his book titled "The Day the World Ended". It was about the accounts of what important Americans did the day of the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Little did he know that through his research he learned much more. He met more people and learned more about the past of the …show more content…
"Billy is too ill and weak to be an active character. Instead, he is forced to watch terrible things happen, things that are so awful that they send him out of time (either truly or in his own mind) to experience his own death many years before it happens" (Vonnegut 2,25).Slaughter-House Five starts in 1944, Upstate New York. This is where Billy Pilgram attends optometry school, until he was drafted into the army where he is not a fully trained soldier, but a chaplin 's assistant. The novel time travels, bouncing back and forth between Billy during the war and pos war affects. Despite his lack of war ethics, Billy is deployed to Luxembourg to fight in the Battle of the Bulge against the Germans. Throughout the novel Vonnegut speaks about the war against Germany and the toll Billy payed for serving. Also, in the story Billy describes how he was abducted by aliens. It also explains the reality of what soldiers over seas go through everyday to say our country and …show more content…
For instance science; in Cat 's Cradle it was the atomic bomb and ice-9; in Slaughter-House Five it was Billy 's PTSD making him think he was abducted by aliens. Even the two examples are not in anyway similar to eachother, there are infrences that are. Cat 's Cradle and Slaughter-House Five both use bombs in there stories; the atomic bomb on Heroshima,Japan, and the firebombing of Deresded, Germany. Also, both main characters were wanting to write books about the wars, John and and Billy 's roommate Rumfoord. Another example is death in families. Not only did the mother, Valencia die in Slauhter- House Five, but also in Cat 's Cradle, Felix 's