Summary
Slaughterhouse-Five's central topic is the horror of the Dresden bombing. As a witness to the destruction, Billy confronts fundamental questions about the meanings of life and death. Traumatized by the events in Dresden, Billy can provide no answers. As a soldier, he is dislocated in a system where there is no reward, no punishment, and no justice. Although his life as an optometrist, a husband, and a father is materially fulfilling, he is unable to find peace of mind because of the trauma he suffered in Dresden.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five (Mass Market Paperback, Published October 6th 1998 by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, New York) 215 pages.
Personal Opinion
Slaughterhouse-Five is a very interesting read and Kurt Vonnegut’s unique writing style and his compelling combination of facts and fiction makes it captivating. It is most of all an anti-war novel that talks about the devastation of the bombing of Dresden. It also communicates the absurdity and horror of war and its consequences: death, loss, physical and mental suffering, etc.
This is the story of Billy Pilgrim, a son, a husband, a father, an optometrist, but also a soldier, a prisoner of war that lost his way and his sanity at times. The focus of his experience in World War II is as a POW in Dresden, right before the bombardment. He manages to survive the bombing because he was at the meat locker of the basement of the slaughterhouse where he was kept a prisoner. There are no heroes in the story, just a few broken survivors. These are desperate men trying to survive the next 24 hours. Billy is not special either, far from it, and at times, he seems the least likable character, but for whatever reason (the randomness of life), he prevails.
Also, Billy Pilgrim's recounts of his travels to the planet Tralfamadore and his ability to jump back and forth in time could be interpreted by some readers as the stuff of science fiction. Regardless of what you think, for me, it is mostly a brilliant tool to tell the story in different times (out of order). Time is a character in this book, and it also helps illustrate the fragility of the human experience when is exposed to trauma. How else can you make sense of the dark journey (life)? The answer is that humans don't ever die, but can live in just that precise moment in time that we have to. This self-revelation is of great comfort to Billy and allows him to continue his journey. There is and will always be death around us, and "so it goes". We must go on. Vonnegut's book is an excellent book and a must-read.
This is the story of Billy Pilgrim, a son, a husband, a father, an optometrist, but also a soldier, a prisoner of war that lost his way and his sanity at times. The focus of his experience in World War II is as a POW in Dresden, right before the bombardment. He manages to survive the bombing because he was at the meat locker of the basement of the slaughterhouse where he was kept a prisoner. There are no heroes in the story, just a few broken survivors. These are desperate men trying to survive the next 24 hours. Billy is not special either, far from it, and at times, he seems the least likable character, but for whatever reason (the randomness of life), he prevails.
Also, Billy Pilgrim's recounts of his travels to the planet Tralfamadore and his ability to jump back and forth in time could be interpreted by some readers as the stuff of science fiction. Regardless of what you think, for me, it is mostly a brilliant tool to tell the story in different times (out of order). Time is a character in this book, and it also helps illustrate the fragility of the human experience when is exposed to trauma. How else can you make sense of the dark journey (life)? The answer is that humans don't ever die, but can live in just that precise moment in time that we have to. This self-revelation is of great comfort to Billy and allows him to continue his journey. There is and will always be death around us, and "so it goes". We must go on. Vonnegut's book is an excellent book and a must-read.
My score (1-5):
About the Author:
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Vonnegut attended Cornell University, but dropped out in January 1943 and enlisted in the United States Army. As part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and the University of Tennessee. He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II, and was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was interned in Dresden and survived the Allied bombing of the city by taking refuge in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, with whom he had three children. He later adopted his sister's three sons, after she died of cancer and her husband died in a train accident.
Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. The novel was reviewed positively but was not commercially successful. In the nearly 20 years that followed, Vonnegut published several novels that were only marginally successful, such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964). Vonnegut's magnum opus, however, was his immediately successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The book's antiwar sentiment resonated with its readers amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, and its reviews were generally positive. After its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. He was invited to give speeches, lectures, and commencement addresses around the country and received many awards and honors.
Later in his career, Vonnegut published several autobiographical essays and short-story collections, including Fates Worse Than Death (1991), and A Man Without a Country (2005). After his death, he was hailed as a morbidly comical commentator on the society in which he lived, and as one of the most important contemporary writers. Vonnegut's son Mark published a compilation of his father's unpublished compositions, titled Armageddon in Retrospect. Numerous scholarly works have examined Vonnegut's writing and humor.
Source: Wikipedia
