Slaughterhouse-Five

Rating:
Summary: Where am I? When am I?
Review: This book is amazing in its randomness. Vonnegut zips you through time and space as you follow an optometrist from WWII to the near future. Decide yourself whether to take it all at face value, or consider it all the disconnected thoughts of a madman. Regardless, Vonnegut leaves you wondering exactly who has lost it.

Idea for you Enlish majors out there: consider comparing this with Heller's Catch-22.

Rating:
Summary: Just an interesting book on all accounts
Review: In the late 1960's society was at complete unrest. War was occurring in Vietnam, leaders were being shot, and families were drifting apart. This was the time that Kurt Vonnegut wrote the novel Slaughterhouse-Five. In the beginning of the novel he places himself as the main point of view. He sets up the story with his own struggles of isolation. He calls long lost friends drinks and smokes. It is here where he visits an old friend and war veteran, whose wife worries that he will glorify the war by writing about it. By mentioning this I feel that Vonnegut is justifying the novel's randomness, moving it away from a war novel to the multi-set version that it became. The fact that Vonnegut himself is struggling, sets us up to the struggles that Billy Pilgrim will face while setting us up to the character himself being seen as the eyes and ears of the author.

Billy Pilgrim is a very interesting character. In the novel he experiences the war, personal abuse, disability, mental illness and a lack of self-worth. As ironic as that sounds, he is the center of the novel, the piece that holds it together. Billy represents not just the negatives of war, but of the overall problems of the human condition. The fact that Billy is a victim and what he represents creates a cynical view of how the author views the world at the time.

Some may view Pilgrim strictly as a weak character. The fact that he is taken advantage of time and time again is difficult to deal with. I often wondered why he was so pathetic and what the point of that was. In researching the author for this paper, Vonnegut himself was weak in many ways. This is why the character of Billy Pilgrim works in this novel. Kurt Vonnegut needed to be able to make a statement from the core of society, which was weak at the time. The fact that Pilgrim goes into the future and becomes a celebrity equates his own writing success and what it really means to him versus how he feels about himself. At one point in the novel he even mentions that writing is like advertising, you need to tell the truth or you get into trouble.

It is no accident that by the end of the novel, Billy Pilgrim seldom seems to know who, where and why he is. The author notes this in the last chapter set in 1967. It is the year before the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King occur. These problems in our society and Pilgrim's cluelessness are used to make a point. The point that he is trying to make is that Pilgrim is presented as sick and listless but there are good reasons that this is occurring.

Still, why is this important to have him as a weakling? I also feel that he is depicting mental illness as something caused by society itself and it is these mentally ill that create a major part of how the world is run. Pilgrim at many times in the book is abused so badly you understand why he has become the weak person that he is during many moments of the book. You understand why he is the weakling or the victim. Tie that in with the previous points you realize that is us, all of society that is victimized. It also runs into who is running the world. In 1976, Pilgrim becomes a hero of society, yet you wonder how that can occur. You know him as very un-heroic, yet Vonnegut places him in that role as if to say, it is the nuts that are running the asylum. The point being that some of the same can be said about the leaders of the world during the time this book was written.

If the book is to be viewed basically, I could say that Vonnegut is telling us that war is bad. In fact, the raid of Dresden is a large point regarding the unrest of society. He could have stayed with this point throughout the entire novel. It would have been the easy way to make a basic point. The fact that he moves away from this to Billy in the present and later in the future, what the author is trying to say is that society needs to be fixed not just now, but later, before wars and cruelty cease to exist.

As mentioned early, the book is often criticized for being too random in its structure. It was viewed as a fault. I believe that randomness was used to make a point and is a strength rather than a weakness. Vonnegut does this by the pace and quick changes in setting and plot. The violence and cruelty is another way that he is reaching out to what is going on in the world. Vonnegut frames this by placing himself in the beginning and end of the novel, thus introducing where he is at in 1969, as well as bringing the novel to a logical conclusion.

In conclusion, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. uses many layers and levels of understanding of society to make his point. What was happening while his book was being written adds to the structure and meaning of the novel itself. The novel is not jumpy or all over the road, but rather a well thought out piece using a main character to define the place society was at that time.

Rating:
Summary: SL-5
Review: In Slaughter House Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes about Billy Pilgrim's adventure through war, time travel, and life in the end. Vonnegut is able to write well because of experience from writing many other books.
Vonnegut's main point is that war is bad because things die from it. He does an excellent job of proving his point, by having an enourmous amount of objects and characters die. He reminds you of how much death there is by adding the short phrase "So it goes." after every death.

Vonnegut is saying something by having aliens in his story. The aliens teach him to take time in one chunk, instead of dividing it with different events.
Slaughter House Five can be compared easily with Catch-22. Catch-22 is also an anti-war book, and shows downsides of war. People die, go crazy, and hate war in both. Both books use a lot of humor.
The book was not written in any order. It may confuse some people. Adventurous readers may like this, for a challenge.

Rating:
Summary: Billy Pilgrim: Kurt Vonegurt Jr.
Review: The Reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 was because I read this book in a short period of time so I did not get what other people got out of it I also thought that this was a crazy story and I related this to the fact that Kurt Vonneget is a bit crazy if you don't mind me saying and that this book is far out of the ordinary. This book has a new type of writing which is different to the ordinary prose that is common in most books. The book has an unusual beginning because it starts off by Kurt Vonneget telling us about how he tried to write a book about Dresden and how he had alot of trouble getting it started so he decided to write a book about Billy Pilgrim a man from Ilium, New York who becomes unstuck in Time. In this book Billy travels through times to many important events of his life like his birth and his struggle in the POW camps in WW2 and even the time he thinks he was abducted by Aliens from the Planet Tralfamadore. The time on the planet is a split second in earth time but on the planet it is a couple of months. Thre a couple of themes present in this book that can be easily discussed here. The first which is an obvious one which is the time travel which occurs in Billy Pilgrim's world. There is another theme that struck me as odd was the way that he did not sho any emotion of sadness during the war and when his wife died he just said So it goes. There are many reasons that this book was banned for example the use of vulgar language and the use of blasphimus language that there is in the book. There is also a sex scene that occurs when Billy is on Tralfamadore and this would be the grounds for the banning of any book from a school or library. So this book has been banned in many places for these many details but Rye High School didn't ban it

Rating:
Summary: Billy Pilgrim: Kurt Vonegurt Jr.
Review: I read this book over a short period of time so I don't think I got as much out of it as most people would. When I read this book I can honestly say that it was not the best book I have ever read and that is why I gave it 4 it is a completely new type of writing compared to the normal form of prose writing. The story of Billy Pilgrim's crazy time travel if you will is a very outrageous story and shows how Kurt is quite a crazy author and he maybe a little screwed up in the head. Something that I found interesting was at the beginning of the book how it is a autobiography of how Vonnegurt was trying to write abook about Dresden but he could not get the book started so he starts to tell us about Billy and how "Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in Time" It is crazy because he goes from being himself back to his childhood and then he goes into the POW camps and then to a mysterious planet called Tralfamadore which is inhabited by the Tralfamadorians where he stays in a zoo for months in theie time but on earth it is not even a second it is moment in time. The obvious theme is time travel which Billy does seemlessly because he is unstuck in time. Another theme which is part of Billy's personality is the way that whenever something bad happens he seems to let it pass when any other person would cry he lets it go "So it goes" asit says. This book positively contributed to literature because it is a different type of writing and it is a new and fantastic way of writing and it is a cool story a little crazy but cool. This book was banned because it used vulgar language in places and there is a scene when he has sex and there are some references that are some phrases of blasphamy which would mean banning the book in religious schools.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent modernist approach to the problem of war
Review: This 'anti-war book,' as Vonnegut himself has called it, focuses on the life of a World War II prisoner of war named Billy Pilgrim. Pilgrim (along with Vonnegut, the narrator) was present when Dresden was bombed and destroyed by the Allied forces, killing far more people than the atomic bombs in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The bombing, and the ensuing ruinous carnage of the former city, serve to show the horrors of war, and the violence and destruction of innocent lives which are sometimes a price of the bloody game of war.

But this is not your typical anti-war book. Vonnegut does not openly criticize the Allies for bombing Dresden--in fact, one of his characters points out that, at the time, it seemed like it had to be done. Another, more subtle consequence of war is the focus of this book, however, and this consequence is exemplified in the mental state of Billy Pilgrim. Billy thinks he has stepped outside of time, and no longer sees things chronologically. Instead, the novel constantly jumps back and forth in time to different events in Billy's life, including a supposed alien kidnapping. Though the book treats these time jumps as real, enough hints are given for the skeptical reader to doubt. The war left Billy's life in shambles, and he spends the bulk of the novel trying to make sense of it all (hence the non-linear narrative).

Vonnegut seems to be showing us two ugly sides to war. The first is the side we all know by now--the innocent victims, the meaningless slaughter, the terrible destruction. But the second, subtler side can only be seen in Billy Pilgrim's character, and it seems this is another horrible effect of war. War causes carnage and bloodshed while it is occurring, but it also has long term effects. Depression, anxiety, and many other forms of mental illness can come about because of war, as Vonnegut so eloquently points out in this novel. This is considered to be one of the greatest modernist novels of the 20th century, and with good reason. I highly recommend this unique take on war.

Rating:
Summary: Slaughterhouse Review
Review: Slaughterhouse Five is excellent! No other book has dealt with a subject like war in such a humorous manner. Kurt Vonnecut writes about a World War II prisoner of war, Billy Pilgrim, who time travels throughout his life. Billy is trying to find the meaning of life through the fractured pieces of his life. Though these time travels can be a bit confusing at times, they are an excellent basis for the book. The reader is able to travel with Billy from the time he goes to war, to the time he becomes a feeble, moderately old man. Vonnecut's writing style is so superb that the reader feels like they are time traveling as well.
I find the Tralfamadorians to be quite funny. Billy's trip on a flying saucer allows the reader to escape from reality and have a good laugh. I think the Tralfamadorians have an amazing outlook on life and time. They believe no one ever really dies but continues to live in the different parts of their life. I often find myself hoping this idea is true.
After the trip to Tralfamadore, Billy believes he knows the true meaning of time. I find I often get frustrated with Billy for believing in such an idea and making himself out to be a fool. However, I do think Billy creates his own world to escape the memories of the detrimental bombing of Dresden, Germany. This artificial thought gives Billy an insight that helps him deal with his need to know what life was about.
This book must be read! It was truly one of the best books I have read. It is extremely well written with the right mixture of humor and seriousness. I believe there is a hidden meaning in this book that only the reader can experience. I would recommend this book to anyone!

Rating:
Summary: Slaughter House Five
Review: Vonnegut's writing has always defied traditional classification and Slaughterhouse-Five is a prime example of this as it combines a mix of social satire, science fiction, anti-war sentiment as well as great deal of autobiographical detail. The full title-page of Slaughterhouse Five is perhaps the most revealing and apt description of the book in addition to giving us some insight into the author's mind-set behind its creation.

Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-Dance with Death By Kurt Vonnegut
A fourth-generation German-American now living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod [and smoking too much], who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors De Combat, As a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany, "The Florence of the Elbe," a long time ago, and survived to tell the tale. This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from.

Billy Pilgrim's "telegraphic schizophrenic" shifts from one period of his life to another is his own defence mechanism in dealing with (or avoiding dealing with) the traumatic experiences in his life. Vonnegut has acknowledged that the only way in which he could tell his story of surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden was in this fragmented manner and that it refused to come out as a linear story when he attempted to tell it as such.

What is amazing to me about Slaughterhouse Five is that Vonnegut manages to fit so much into one story. While writing a brilliant satire on the absurdity of war on par with Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Vonnegut also manages to put a human face on the tragedy at Dresden and expose one of World War II's darker moments to the general public in an accessible form.

While the fragmented nature of time in the novel is largely a thematic device used by Vonnegut to contrast the different events in Billy Pilgrim's life, Vonnegut also contemplates the nature of time and fate in the book.

After Billy meets with the Tralfamadorian's and they explain the nature of time from their own perception, Billy is able to accept his wanderings in time. Having visited his own death on numerous times he is no longer frightened by it and has come to accept it. With regard to fate, Vonnegut seems to argue that life is easier to live if we, like Billy Pilgrim accept that what will happen has already happened and that we are not in control of our own destiny. This absence of responsibility for our actions could in itself spark an entirely separate philosophical and religious debate that I don't intend to entertain in the space provided here. Suffice it to say that it's an interesting proposition and one that can be seen as a recurring theme in time travel literature.

With regard to time travel and the nature of time my argument of late has been that if the past is immutable and cannot be changed by the time traveller, then it tends to suggest that fate exists. My logic being that assuming time is linear (which it may not be), our present is the future's past so if we can't change our past the future cannot change its own past (our present). Confused yet? Anyhow, its just an aside that I thought I would mention in light of the themes raised in Slaughterhouse Five.

Rating:
Summary: Tri-film-mi-dore
Review: This novel can be broken down into three principal stories, much like the film Pulp Fiction. The struggling writer, Kilgore Trout, meets his only fan who happens to be as crazy as himself after living as a hermit. The passive hero of World War II, Billy Pilgrim, ..., and the aliens from Transfalmadore who cause the destruction of the universe. Together, these three entities create, the greatest anti-war novel? Yea, crazy enough, this book has nothing to do with these stories. Much like Pulp Fiction, there is a deeper message that resounds off a funny and edgy premise. I won't delve further into details because I'm lazy and most people won't read this. However, for those who are looking for their next novel, I assure you this is it. Getting past the first few pages of meandering is easy and all phrases are important and used for a reason. Unfortunately, I had to explian to my mother what, "So it goes," meant. Reading this will not only enhance your lovelife, it will reaffirm your belief in aliens. Peace, and may these three short films follow you to the door.

Rating:
Summary: Slaughterhouse 5
Review: Without doubt one of the finest books I have ever read. All Sci-Fi books should be like this.
The book operates on number of levels.
The Story of Billy Pilgrim and the 4 dimensional beings who have abducted him.
The almost heart rending account of Vonnegut's own experinces during the Bombing of Dresden where he was prisoner of war.
And by giving an idea what it would be like to see time as an additional dimension. That the future and past are just places where one can visit but not change. So - without giving away the plot - when the man is shot for picking up the teapot. It comes as no suprise it has always happened and always will happen.

So it goes.