Slaughterhouse 5 is a book by Kurt Vonnegut that depicts some of the wickedness present in humans, and in turn, depicting the wickedness of the world as Vonnegut sees it. To avoid dealing with the wickedness present in the world, people hide their eyes from the truth, creating an artificial blindness so that they don’t have to deal with the reality they live in. Vonnegut’s argument is well expressed in his novel through the actions of his characters, as to hide themselves from the truth, they hide the memories deep within their consciousness. Vonnegut demonstrated in his novel that the world around us is destructive and hostile, causing several people to shield themselves from the truth, however, no matter what the reason is for sheltering
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Vonnegut tells of his troubles in gathering military information from the Air Force when he said “I wrote the Air Force back then, asking for details about the raid on Dresden… I was answered by a man who, like myself, was in public relations. He said that he was sorry, but that the information was top secret still. I read the letter out loud to my wife, and I said, ‘Secret? My God-from whom?’” (p. 11); The Air Force refuses to give out information regarding the Dresden raid despite the facts that the war has been over for years, and also that Vonnegut himself was a survivor of their firebombing of Dresden. Vonnegut and many others already know about the firebombing raid of Dresden, yet the Air Force still refuses to release information on the topic, which means that at this point, the Air Force is simply refusing to acknowledge the Dresden raid. The Air Force believes that protecting and hiding the truth about Dresden is more important than admitting their cruelty and involvement with Dresden. So, by hiding the truth of Dresden from others, the Air Force is hiding the truth of Dresden from themselves. In the end, the Air Force is only hurting itself through other’s opinions of the Air Force, by making them seem untrustworthy or
Vonnegut tells of his troubles in gathering military information from the Air Force when he said “I wrote the Air Force back then, asking for details about the raid on Dresden… I was answered by a man who, like myself, was in public relations. He said that he was sorry, but that the information was top secret still. I read the letter out loud to my wife, and I said, ‘Secret? My God-from whom?’” (p. 11); The Air Force refuses to give out information regarding the Dresden raid despite the facts that the war has been over for years, and also that Vonnegut himself was a survivor of their firebombing of Dresden. Vonnegut and many others already know about the firebombing raid of Dresden, yet the Air Force still refuses to release information on the topic, which means that at this point, the Air Force is simply refusing to acknowledge the Dresden raid. The Air Force believes that protecting and hiding the truth about Dresden is more important than admitting their cruelty and involvement with Dresden. So, by hiding the truth of Dresden from others, the Air Force is hiding the truth of Dresden from themselves. In the end, the Air Force is only hurting itself through other’s opinions of the Air Force, by making them seem untrustworthy or