Billy Pilgrim's Slaughterhouse Five

The project I chose to do was an original artwork. It demonstrates various aspects of modernism and surrealism, by showing fragmentation, experimentation, and collage techniques. I utilised and manipulated key symbols and motifs from the novel, Slaughterhouse Five, such as an imprisoned soldier without eyes, a clock shaped lifecycle for birds, and the firebombing of Dresden. Together, the meaning behind the symbolism and motifs expressed within this poster describe why Billy Pilgrim feels the need to fabricate an artificial reality of which he uses to escape his true sorrow filled life.
Starting off with the main focal point, the viewer will see an image of a scraggly soldier. This soldier is supposed to represent the main character in the …show more content…
From his swimming lessons at the YMCA to his speeches at the Lions Club to his captivity in Tralfamadore, Billy Pilgrim shifts in and out of the meat locker in Dresden, where he barely survives. The destructiveness of the war is evoked in subtle ways. For instance, Billy is quite successful in his post war exploits from a materialistic point of view. He is president of the Lions Club, works as a prosperous optometrist, lives in a thoroughly comfortable modern home, and has a family. While it may seem that Billy leads a productive postwar life, the truth is quite different. For example, he only gets his job as a result of his father-in-law’s efforts. More importantly, at one point in the novel, Billy walks in on his son and realises that they barely know each other. Then, it seems that Billy may be hallucinating about his experiences with the Tralfamadorians as a way to escape or cope with a world destroyed by war—a world that he cannot understand.Therefore, Billy is a traumatized man who cannot come to terms with the destructiveness of war without invoking a far-fetched and impossible theory to which he can shape the