Slaughterhouse Five Vs War

Both Timothy Findley’s ‘The Wars’ and Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ delve into extreme detail on the absurdity and tragedy of war and life itself. The books and the characters within are often befuddled, bemused, or held subject to the mad whims of a world that is ultimately apathetic to whether they live or die. Both books utilize their unique narrative structures to emphasize the absurd nature of death by shaping the form in which information is presented around the intended message of the story. The authors of both tales utilize the effect that the deaths of others have on the protagonists, the selective revealing of information to both the readers and the characters, as well as the beliefs and thoughts of important figures in the …show more content…
As Pilgrim, a character in the story, intimately understands and is well aware of the plot, his place in it, and his inevitable fate. To him, these things are of little consequence as “He has seen his birth and death many times… and pays random visits to all the events in between” (Vonnegut 23). The reader however, is not privy to this information until it is revealed to them. For the reader, every new scene is exactly that, new. This bizarre exchange of information manifests in Pilgrim not only acknowledging his own death to the reader by stating directly that “I, Billy Pilgrim… will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth, 1976.” (Vonnegut 141), but even altering the structure of the story to convey this. For Pilgrim, his death is an arbitrary event. Thus, the location of his death in the story is just as unimportant. Afterall, he knows that when he dies “It is simply violet light and a hum… Then he swings back into life again” (Vonnegut 143). This is reflected in the story’s structure as the reader is made aware of the scene when Pilgrim dies not at the end of the novel, like Ross’ death in ‘The Wars’, but in the middle of the story. His death is not even lamented on, it is simply matter of factly stated. This relation between what Pilgrim understands his life and death to be, and the way the narrative is structured creates a deliberate dichotomy between what the …show more content…
The reader, taking the role of the researcher, is aware of the fate Ross will meet. While Ross, the hero of his own story, is blissfully unaware of his fate. Due to this, the actions taken by Robert betray his values just as much as the inactions of Pilgrim. Unlike Pilgrim, Ross has no way of understanding how or when he could die. Free will in ‘The Wars’ is not the absurd suggestion that it is in ‘Slaughterhouse Five’, where “only on earth is there any talk of free will.” (Vonnegut 86) instead, it is what defines the actions of Robert. Robert growing as an individual is what allows him to become decisive, even in the face of an unsure fate. A fate that the narrative is rarely shy to remind the reader of, small events often happen that signify to the reader that Robert’s death is imminent, such as mentioning that when Robert and Mrs. Ross parted ways “it was the last time they breathed in one another’s presence.” (Findley 24). Although this is knowledge that is known only to the reader, it imparts a power in Robert’s actions to directly oppose the perspective presented by Pilgrim and his near omniscience of his own life. Where Pilgrim is inactive or willing to sit back because of his certain fate, Robert is decisive and takes action as a result of his uncertain fate. A quality that the novel argues is what ultimately defines a person, as “People can only be found in what they do”