Five Points

What is the message being portrayed in “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut? What about “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller? These are two different reads that just happen to be very similar but also juxtapose each other when compared and contrasted. Slaughterhouse Five is the story of a man named Billy Pilgrim who focuses on the firebombing of Dresden during World War II while switching back and forth to different points of time in his life. Catch 22 is the story of a man, Captain John Yossarian, who…

Perfect World in Slaughterhouse Five With countless wars and other conflicts, history seems to tell that a perfect world without violence can’t happen, as Henry Rollins remarked, “I don't think you'll ever have a perfect world because we humans are prone to error.” In his satirical anti-war book Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut focuses on World War II and the bombing of Dresden as he demonstrates the senselessness of war. In the passage from Slaughterhouse Five analyzed in this essay, the…

showcases the game of chess played between two opposites for no prize but survival using the least valuable amongst them as pawns, and O’Brien transplants this to the jungle and lets the pawn have a voice. Therefore, both Vonnegut and O’Brien check off all five of the shared themes, for questioning the justice of fighting someone else’s war because…

that can be justified by the balance of good it could bring to all of mankind. Over the years, war has certainly caused an enormous amount of evil in the lives of many people involved, such as the life of Billy Pilgrim. Depicted in the “Slaughterhouse-five” by Kurt Vonnegut as well as that of civilians. The murder of civilians is not admissible in any war. Acts of war are cataclysms caused by the distressed egotism of government officials. The absurdity of war is one that that is inadmissible…

harsh reality. Throughout time, many works have shown characters’ reluctance to confront the truth and instead choose to live a lie and take the easy way out. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut uses multiple characters in both Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five to criticize American thinking for its laziness. In Cat’s Cradle, Felix Hoenikker creates an extremely dangerous substance called ice-nine without thinking about the consequences. Dr. Breed is telling John what Felix said after a marine general…

In the book Slaughterhouse Five, there are many questions that go around, but the main question is who the author of the book? In the book, the author says on a constant basis “That was me. I was there.” I believe the narrator of the book is Kurt Vonnegut. The explanation for this is author mentions his friend Bernard O’Hare at the beginning and the end and rarely in between and when O’Hare’s character would show up when the author would say again “I was there. So was my old war buddy Bernard V.…

makes things worse. Another irony pointed out by Ken Paulson in an article discussing the consequences of banning Slaughterhouse-Five in high schools is that "...today's high schools are full of students engaged with video games and engulfed by social media. Why would we ever build a barrier to reading a book?" (Paulson 1). Paulson shares the same belief when he points out the hypocrisy behind trying to shelter students from profanity within thought-provoking literature when today's students…

“How nice – to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive” (Vonnegut 50). In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut introduces the genuine danger war implements on the innocent minds of soldiers by introducing Billy Pilgrim as a prisoner and Dresden bombing survivor. Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war novel appropriates around a science fiction theme where Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck” in time. Throughout the novel, Billy expresses his ability to time travel throughout different moments of…

Martin Luther, born on November 10th, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, played a significant role in the history of the Catholic Church. Luther was born during the Modern Period of the timeline of Christianity. At this point in history, Renaissance is fully underway and there is rising controversy within the Church. The Holy Roman Empire still spreads over a large territory but it does not have power as a political empire and therefore does not receive governmental funding which lead to the selling of…

Within the first chapter of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five the reader learns not only how the novel will begin but also, rather unconventionally, how it will end. In addition, Vonnegut presents a peculiar admission: “All of this happened, more or less” (1). Beginning in this curious manner sets the stage for a novel that demands the reader’s attention to more than just plot lines. By divulging such information regarding the ending and also disclosing that the content is not to be viewed…