In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut it is contrasted into two major perspectives, Biographical and Structuralist which reveal the devastations of war. Kurt Vonnegut is undoubtedly displaying his life experiences through Billy Pilgrim and his encounters,as he enlisted in the army and exhibits the horrors of war. Kurt channels his experiences through a third person perspective which Billy is essentially a physical manifestation of his memories “The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true”(1). ‘“ Vonnegut had been captured on December 19, caught behind enemy lines during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge, along with other prisoners, he endured a forced march of sixty miles without food, water or sleep, then war crowded
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Previous to the bombings ‘“In Dresden, Vonnegut would serve as part of a work detail housed in an abandoned slaughterhouse,”’3 just as Billy and the other prisoners of war were held captive in Dresden and “The address was Schlachthof-fünf”(153). Kurt not only stayed in a slaughterhouse, he integrated it into the experiences of Billy which manifests the idea of them being the same. ‘“At dawn on Wednesday morning the fourteenth, approximately eight hours after the first attack, Vonnegut and the others climbed the steps, Lazarus-like, to see what had happened.”’4 Billy also survived the exact same bombings with other prisoners of war when they “came out of the shelter the next day”(179). Billy and Kurt both survived the bombings in Dresden which displays another substantial similarity between the author and his character.’”Vonnegut’s job was finding the remains of residents smothered in basements by the firestorms. Superheated tornadoes had sucked out the oxygen and turned hiding places into tombs.”’5 Once the bombings ceased “There were hundreds of corpse mines”(214). The recollection corroborates the certitude that Billy has gone through exactly what Kurt has during the war. These flashbacks are identical representations of events that Kurt …show more content…
As Billy is enduring the war at it’s worst, the physical struggle is almost unbearable. On his way from Russia to Dresden in an unheated box-car “he looked down at his feet and they were blue and ivory”(72). The somatic torment he has to endure is evident as he is a prisoner and is freezing to the point in which his feet are frostbit and no body cares. Death to Billy has next to no meaning to him. His wife Valencia was on her way to see Billy in the hospital and she gets into an accident on the way and “one hour later she was dead. So it goes”(185). The grief is no where to be found for this mortality and it is his wife, it justifies that Billy has gone through so much and seen it all he is left emotionless from the war and how devastating it can be. The essence of the diction used has a meaning that helps you fathom both the book as a whole and it’s characters into a less surface
Previous to the bombings ‘“In Dresden, Vonnegut would serve as part of a work detail housed in an abandoned slaughterhouse,”’3 just as Billy and the other prisoners of war were held captive in Dresden and “The address was Schlachthof-fünf”(153). Kurt not only stayed in a slaughterhouse, he integrated it into the experiences of Billy which manifests the idea of them being the same. ‘“At dawn on Wednesday morning the fourteenth, approximately eight hours after the first attack, Vonnegut and the others climbed the steps, Lazarus-like, to see what had happened.”’4 Billy also survived the exact same bombings with other prisoners of war when they “came out of the shelter the next day”(179). Billy and Kurt both survived the bombings in Dresden which displays another substantial similarity between the author and his character.’”Vonnegut’s job was finding the remains of residents smothered in basements by the firestorms. Superheated tornadoes had sucked out the oxygen and turned hiding places into tombs.”’5 Once the bombings ceased “There were hundreds of corpse mines”(214). The recollection corroborates the certitude that Billy has gone through exactly what Kurt has during the war. These flashbacks are identical representations of events that Kurt …show more content…
As Billy is enduring the war at it’s worst, the physical struggle is almost unbearable. On his way from Russia to Dresden in an unheated box-car “he looked down at his feet and they were blue and ivory”(72). The somatic torment he has to endure is evident as he is a prisoner and is freezing to the point in which his feet are frostbit and no body cares. Death to Billy has next to no meaning to him. His wife Valencia was on her way to see Billy in the hospital and she gets into an accident on the way and “one hour later she was dead. So it goes”(185). The grief is no where to be found for this mortality and it is his wife, it justifies that Billy has gone through so much and seen it all he is left emotionless from the war and how devastating it can be. The essence of the diction used has a meaning that helps you fathom both the book as a whole and it’s characters into a less surface