Dresden

Draft: The bombing of Dresden was a joint United States-British operation that took place during the latter parts of World War 2. Around 2,000 Allied planes took part of the campaign, while Germany could only afford a mere 28 fighter planes to protect the city. By the end, 135,000 Germans had been killed. Kurt Vonnegut was unfortunate enough to have seen the events unfold, as uses that as the backdrop for Slaughterhouse-Five. Billy, the central character of the novel, is a veteran, though by the loosest definition, and more importantly a witness to the Dresden Bombing. Through Billy and Rumfoord 's unwillingness to fully address the Dresden bombing, with Rumfoord portraying it as a just act and Billy ignoring it altogether-Vonnegut suggests…

Vonnegut was working on his famous Dresden war book ever since the second world war ended. The concept was simple: to write what he remembered about Dresden, and become wealthy. However, he found very little to say about Dresden, and after 23 years, he continued to talk about the book he was writing, as there was just as little to say 23 years later. He went to visit an old friend from the war, and the friend, O’Hare, had nothing to say that could help. Vonnegut finally came to the conclusion…

Vonnegut’s Armageddon in Retrospect is a book composed of both short stories and essays about war. Vonnegut was a private in the U.S. Army’s 106th Infantry Division during World War II and was captured by the Germans in mid-December of 1944. In this essay, I examine the ways in which the bombing of Dresden is conflated with sex. Specifically, through a close examination of key metaphors and images, I show how the violent "deflowering" of the virginal city reflects the book's larger view that war…

The bombing of Dresden, Germany occurred during the Second World War between the 13th and 15th of February, 1949. The attack was done by Britain and the United States through the use of an aerial bombing. Within the four raids that the allies carried out, 3,900 tons of highly explosive bombs and incendiaries were dropped on the city by heavy bombers of the United States Army Air Forces and the British Royal Air Force. Dresden, Germany was the country’s seventh-largest city and the largest of the…

This artefact is called the Dresden codex; it is one of the four Mayan books that still exist today. It is kept in the collection of the Saxon State and University Library in Dresden, Germany. The other three are in secure places in Madrid, Paris and in Mexico City. The Dresden codex consists of 39 leaves, inscribed on both sides, and 358 centimeters long, the codex was folded in an accordion like-manner. The Mayans adapted their system of writing called glyphs, from the Olmecs around 50…

The Holocaust over Dresden “It was above all during the 18th century a magnificent centre of European politics, culture and economic development, only to become a synonym for apocalyptic destruction just two centuries later.” Dresden, a city in eastern Germany, was once a flourishing city. However, from 13 to 15 February 1945, Allied forces attacked Dresden toward the end of World War II. The city was devastated and left in ruins. The bombing of Dresden and the attack carried out by the Allied…

The Dresden Fire Bombing was a controversial decision made by the Allied Powers during World War II. Even today, the decision to firebomb, Dresden, a city filled with refugees and civilians, is considered by many unjustifiable. The Dresden Fire Bombing took place from the 13 to the 15 of February 1945. The American Air Force and the British Royal Air Force dropped over 3,900 tons of explosives, including the incendiary devices also known as the firebomb. The explosives were dropped over the…

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” (Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five p. 60) Slaughterhouse Five is an anti-war book written by a veteran named Kurt Vonnegut. The main character is a broken man named Billy Pilgrim. Billy had been captured by the Germans and had to bear witness to the allied bombing of Dresden. According to History.com, “The bombing was controversial because Dresden was neither…

bombings of Dresden clearly caused more evil than good, by the time that the bombings occurred, the war was nearly over. Only a few military personnel were taken out with the bombings depicted by Vonnegut, yet all that slaughter of innocent people went on throughout many years beyond the end of the war. It lived on through many soldiers like Billy who seemed even though survived were dead inside. The wide spread of evil caused by your country in the long run is all that war leaves behind. War…

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…