Cutthroat trout

Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros written in 1959 is one of his most famous works forming a part of the Post War Avant-Garde Drama of the Theatre of Absurd. Rhinoceros demonstrates Ionesco’s anxiety about the spread of inhuman totalitarian tendencies in society. Inspired by his personal experiences with fascism during World War II, this absurdist drama depicts the struggle of one man to maintain his identity and integrity alone in a world where all others have succumbed to the beauty of brute force…

“Slaughterhouse-Five” is an anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut that follows the experiences of Billy Pilgrim through the Dresden firebombing, and his life afterwards. Throughout the book, one can follow the theme of the devastation of war by examining the negative effects the war has had on Billy. The theme shows itself through Billy’s sleeping patterns and mental state, his “time traveling,” and the symbolism of the phrase “So it goes.” After becoming a prisoner of war during World War II, Billy…

Over the course of two decades, Kurt Vonnegut wrote, edited, rewrote, and revised the now classic ‘anti-war’ novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. While much of the fiction about WWll was romantic, and remained so well into the 50s’ and 60s’, Vonnegut refused to approach the war in this manner. Instead, Vonnegut decides to explore the life of Billy Pilgrim, and in doing so, criticizes the banality of the war through the banality of Billy’s ensuing trauma. Vonnegut primarily does this by switching between…

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a decidedly non- heroic man who had become "unstuck in time”. The two central events in his life that he keeps returning to are his abduction by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and his time as a soldier and prisoner of war during World War II, during which he witnesses the allied firebombing of the city of Dresden, Germany and as a result, more death than he had ever known possible.Through the forms of figurative…

Autobiography Slaughterhouse-Five ain't a pure autobiography because, while it does have elements of the author's life in it, most of the narrative is focused on a fictional character, Billy Pilgrim. At the same time, many of Vonnegut's own experiences in Dresden, Germany, provide the engine for Slaughterhouse-Five's plot... so we think it deserves to be called a semi-autobiographical novel. War Drama Slaughterhouse-Five is also primarily about various aspects of war: (a) how much it sucks,…

A Reflection on the Recurring Themes of 3 of Dave Eggers Works A wide range of personal experiences to look back on, a curiosity to understand and reveal social injustices; this along with Eggers sophisticated and entertaining writing style has justly made Dave Eggers a national best seller. Through reading three of his many works, I have discovered recurring themes of loss and loss through death, faults with the social justice system and racial profiling, and a misconception of…

Throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five an anti-war tone is prominent without being blatantly stated. Instead, Vonnegut uses characters, events, and descriptions to clearly relay his opinion to the reader. He reveals the true horrors of wars by exposing the romantic delusions of war and how this misconception affect those fighting and the world around them. Vonnegut confronts the previously valiant outlook of going to war by illustrating people who held those beliefs and then…

“So it goes.” These three words convey the fatalistic mindset of Kurt Vonnegut through the voice of Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five. The strength of Vonnegut’s novel lies in his own personal experiences, as he himself was an American prisoner of war, was captured in Germany, and then was transferred to the city of Dresden. Throughout the novel, Billy Pilgrim suffers flashbacks of the horrors of war, specifically those associated with the bombing of Dresden…

Vonnegut’s fusion of historical fiction and science fiction in Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut, 1969), allows for an exploration of the aftermath of the war on both individuals who fought in it, and society post-war, which he does more specifically through the character of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, and his invention of Tralfamadore. Noted by Kevin Brown, Vonnegut wanted to “remind the reader of the anomic alienation that existed in the society that came after that war” (Brown, 2011), which…

Coping Mechanisms in Times of Crisis During the Bosnian War In Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco, the ideas that Sacco illustrates in his vivid comics are based on the relationship between the destruction of the people of Gorazde and how they coped with unimaginable situations in the traumatic world they called reality. Sacco is able to clearly depict the agonizing hardships of the Muslim people during the Bosnian war in times of death and destruction. The sympathy one may feel for the characters…