Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - Essay Example

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut The novel Slaughterhouse-Five is an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim and his ordeal before and after the World War II. The novel lays special emphasis on the bombing of Dresden just before the war came to an end. It describes the atrocities associated with it (the bombing) and how it changed the life of Billy Pilgrim, the man who saw the destruction caused by war and survived it. The aim of the novel is to oppose war and act as a voice for thousands of people who were against the war of America with Vietnam. The author time and time again reminds his readers of the millions of lives lost in the Second World War and fears that something similar would happen if the United Stated tries to participate in favour of war again. A comparison of the novel with other novels and movies have been made so that it is clear what message the author was trying to give to his audience. After the comparison has been made, the essay will penetrate the effort the author made in trying to deliver a public message to its readers. The destruction of Dresden is regarded by many historians as an act that was totally unnecessary. There was no military base and Dresden was a part of Germany that was known for its culture. Civilians migrated to Dresden with the hope that it was safe and would not be a target of destruction by any super power. However the bombing was done to put psychological pressure on the German army that no part of their country was safe and they should surrender before the rest of Germany is destroyed too. From the first chapter, the antiwar views of the author are quite evident. When the author tells his friend that he is writing a novel opposing war his friend replies “Won’t it be better if you write an anti-glacier book?” (Vonnegut 3). This statement signifies that Vonnegut holds negative views about war and it should not be made between countries. But his opinion is not of any importance to the greater military forces ruling the world. Vonnegut believes that making war against enemies is a concept that has existed till the beginning of the world and will continue to do so until the end of it until man ultimately destroys himself and the nature around him. In the same chapter Vonnegut is found saying “The pointless war killed thousands of children in shipwrecks and sent thousands in slavery” (Vonnegut 15). The antiwar opinion states that there is no use of war when children, used for soldiers as the army was comprised of young men mostly in their early twenties, had to give their life for a purpose that was not worth it. So many lives were lost at all ends just for the powerful ones to show their military dominance. Vonnegut is clearly of the opinion that it is a shame for the government to give such order to their armies and make them fight between them. Nor does the army or the civilians have anything to do with one another and they end dying. Vonnegut recalls of his experience in Dresden as a song that does not look to end and has been put on the repeat mode (Vonnegut 3). He uses the word “useless” to describe his experience that has forever been installed in his memory (Vonnegut 2). The choice of words only suggests that although he survived the war his life had ended when he saw the mass destruction of human beings. He has become a man with no purpose in life as his memory would not allow him to reconcile with the present world and live in peace. Such is the potential of war that it kills even the ones that have survived it. Yet again in the same chapter he says that “The one who hated war were actually the ones who had really fought” (Vonnegut 11). The message is very simple. Those who had the courage to oppose the war and go against the authority of their respective government were the ones that were fighting for a purpose. Because Vonnegut has use a lot of irony it makes it hard to understand the essence of the statement. In this statement however the author is trying to say that people opposing war have some reason to fight and that reason is a self belief that war is wrong. It is a belief that have made their thought process active rather than the military officers and soldiers following the order of the government without thinking or pondering much over it. Because the soldiers do not have any will they vcannot be regarded as individuals figting for a purpose. In chapter three of the novel the narrator says “"It is, in the imagination of combat's fans, the divinely listless love play that follows the orgasm of victory. It is called 'mopping up" (Vonnegut 52).  The narrator is simply of the opinion that romance does not lie on the victory of the war but the after effects of it. He says that war is something he can never understand no matter how hard he tries to. It is simply very astonishing to see the victorious enemies taking photos of the land they destroyed. They take pleasure in adding it to the territory they destroyed. The author might have experienced watching such scenes in war when the victorious army stood up the destroyed ground to take pictures. He does not understand such actions as to him destroying someone else’s home is a sad event and not acceptable. 'My God what is wrong with you? He doesn’t look like a man but a broken kite" (Vonnegut 97). The following words are said by an Englishmen when he see’s Billy’s poor health condition. The Americans were not given any foods in the camps despite their rights of being fairly treated as prisoner of war. When the Englishmen gave them better quality food the Americans could not digest it as their system was not accustomed to that kind of good quality food. The narrator is trying to make a point that there are no rules at war. No matter what front a prisoner of war is, he is subjected to humility and ill-treatment. The lack of rights suggests that the war had made humans enemies of one another. What good a war is then when the lives of human beings are not valued. It is a great irony that wars are made to improve the lives of some while worsening the conditions for others. In such a case it is an insult to humanity. It only means to improve one’s conditions on the expense of others. One part of the novel reads “Most Tralfamadorians did not know much about how Billy’s body and face were or how beautiful they were. They thought that he was a spectacular specimen. This gave confidence to Billy who really began to enjoy his body” (Vonnegut 113). Vonnegut added some elements of science in his novel to describe the terrible events of war. Tralfamadorians are a fictional character created by Vonnegut. They are a type of alien that kidnap protagonists. As they are from a different planet they have a different way to reason and pass judgement. Tralfamadorians believe that it is because of the lack of using free will that the humans have brought trouble onto themselves. The author uses an outer source as an example to suggest that even the aliens are better than us if they do exist. Even they wouldn’t use themselves to destroy one another. Man is the enemy of man himself. Rather than ending the novel on the outcome of Billy’s fate the writer chose to end it with the consequences that led after the bombing and the words of a bird that read “Poo-tee-weet” (Vonnegut 215). The message is very clear once again. Like the meaning of the words from the birds are unclear so is the reason of bombing Dresden. It does not make or prove any point. It is just a loss of a lot of valuable lives for nothing what so ever. The author has used an informal language, abusive at times, to make the novel look more realistic and personal.  "All this responsibility at such an early age made her a bitchy flibbertigibbet" (Vonnegut 29). The novel is a mix of irony and a candid approach put by the author to make his point clear. Many critiques of the novel believe that it has so much irony in it that it is hard to tell when the author is being sarcastic and when he is not. In some parts of the book his views are very straightforward while in some the author has taken an ironical approach. In one part of the novel the author says "The entire city gets burned down, and numerous amounts of people are slaughtered. One American is taken a prisoner for picking a teapot. After that he is shot by a firing squad" (Vonnegut 5). This is an example of a passage where the writer uses a candid approach. There are many examples in the novel where the tone changes automatically. The writer sounds angry and then depressed at times. This is because the novel is read as an account of war. The mood of the audience is supposed to change with the mood of the author. The structure may seem unusual because of the timeline. The story quickly jumps to the war with Vietnam after starting from the Second World War. This might look a little puzzling at first but as the reader gets used to the structure of going forth and coming back then it is easy to follow the novel. The novel can be said is a unique novel in its own way. It involves many styles and themes of literature and black comedy is one of those. Black comedy is an example of situations that might be serious and not appropriate for the audience to have mirth but still amuses them in some way. In some parts of the novel similar situations are created by the author and the gravity of the situation sounds very serious. But the tone and dialogues make it very interesting and amusing to read. Dialogues like "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference" (Vonnegut 60) in various portions of the novel are amusing to find. They keep the reader closely attached with the book even wanting to read more. Without dark comedy this book would have been a very depressing experience. The humour lets the readers intact and wanting more from the otherwise depressing novel. Even the part when Billy encounters the Tralfamadorians, the author did a spectacular job of bringing a different set of species to draw comparison with humans. The idea is ridiculous in itself but it adds spice to the story. It helps to elucidate the condition humans are in. It points out to one and the most important thing that the author is trying to say “war itself is ridiculous and must be stopped.” There is no specific timeline and the story jumps from one part to a completely different part in the novel. This inconsistency could be taken as a metaphorical way of getting Billy being unstuck in time. Just like the novel he also makes shifts from here to there in his life. Sometimes in the middle of a war and sometimes back at home all of a sudden. Alienation is one of the central themes of the novel. So it can be argued that the structure the novel was built on was in a way to support the alienation of the main character in the novel. Themes have been merged up in the novel to make the greater theme of ‘war’ more predominant. Alienation and isolation is a themes that also reflect in the structure of the novel. The writing style of the author has been heavily criticised and critics have said that the novel lacks accuracy and is a weak effort made in literature. To some it is a confused novel and reflects the mind of the author towards war. But if a closer look is taken towards the characters of the novel and how the structure is laid then it could be argued that the author also considered the structure of the novel as an important theme of the novel. This is what it makes the novel so different from the rest of the books and movies out there. Novels like ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and the ‘Thin Red line’ are more serious in nature. All quiet on the western front for example is a narration by a young man only nineteen years of age much like what Vonnegut described as a child. This young man is quite similar to Billy Pilgrim as he is caught up in the war and does not have any idea why and for what reason he is there. The soldier, known as Paul, also believes that war is useless as killing one another to defend the country does not make any sense. However the theme of the two books is quite different. All Quiet on the Western Front fails to tell the readers that war should be stopped. It is a straight forward book where that focuses on the elements of war rather than giving a message to the readers. It is also quite serious in tone. The Thin Red line is one other novel that focuses on the dreadful events that takes place in wars. It focuses more on the killings of enemy soldiers and taking them as prisoners. It shows how they are treated just like in the slaughterhouse-five when the Englishman is disgusted with the semblance of Billy Pilgrim. The Thin Red line talks about all the atrocities but it leaves the readers to decide whether war is right or wrong. Killing enemies for the sake of one’s country should be permitted or not is also one question that the author leaves people to ponder upon. Thus this novel too fails to give out a message to the readers. On the other hand the novel is quite different to the war movies. War movies mostly have one common thing. It shows a romantic love story of a soldier to keep the audience occupied and make it more emotional. Pearl Harbour and The Legends of the fall are two movies that rotate on this theme other than most Hollywood and English movies. Slaughterhouse-five does not have any romantic theme to make it look more emotional. Other than romance, these war movies focused more on the story line and what went during war rather than giving a message to public to ponder upon. The aim of the movies were to make a blockbuster hit rather than showing the audience what actually war does to humanity and that it should be stopped. Slaughterhouse-five is one of those few novels that successfully manage to do that. Work Cited Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Rosetta Books, 2010. Print Read More