Summary Of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

Understanding Slaughterhouse-Five’s Unique Structure Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five details the struggles of an American draftee and prisoner of war (POW), Billy Pilgrim. The story, partially based off of Vonnegut’s own experiences as a POW during World War II and the bombing of Dresden, takes a fantastic turn as Billy learns that he can travel through time. Yet, it is the lack of structure in Slaughterhouse-Five that sets this book apart from common anti-war or time-travel novels. The structure and “time-hopping” present in Slaughterhouse-Five causes readers to see how Vonnegut feels as though Vonnegut can never truly escape the horrors of Dresden, introduce Tralfamadorian ideas, and show the insanity Billy feels after the bombing. As Vonnegut states at the beginning of the book, his struggle to pen an anti-war novel about Dresden arose …show more content…
These struggles occur despite the way Vonnegut feels as though he cannot escape the horrors of what he experienced. Vonnegut compares his journey to the biblical journey of Lot’s wife, who looked back on the city of Sodom against God’s orders and turned into a pillar of salt. Vonnegut states, “And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. She was turned to a pillar of salt... People aren’t supposed to look back” (22). Vonnegut goes further to say that like Lot’s wife, he looked back on a part of history that he should not have. However, through the structure of Slaughterhouse-Five, which constantly shifts to different parts of Billy’s life as he time-travels, Vonnegut shows how he