This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c) 
It originates from the Evil House of Cheat 
       More essays can always be found at: 
       --- http://www.CheatHouse.com --- 
                ... and contact can always be made to: 
                    Webmaster@cheathouse.com 
-------------------------------------------------------------- 
Essay Name       : 1583.txt 
Uploader         : 
Email Address    : 
Language         : English
Subject          : Fictional Stories
Title            : Slaughterhouse Five - The effects of war
Grade            : 95%
School System    : High School
Country          : USA
Author Comments  : well written
Teacher Comments : excellent paper
Date             : 
Site found at    : friend
--------------------------------------------------------------
  Slaughterhouse  Five


	To me, Slaughterhouse Five is a novel written to show the horror of war.  This is shown by 
the means of the protagonist- Billy Pilgrim.  , "Billys phsychic journeys symbolize the wounded 

soul in need of relief from the horrors of modern life"  (Harris, last 2 lines).  I happen to disagree 

with one part of this statement.  I think that Billys journeys symbolize the wounded soul 

in need of relief from the horrors of war.  

	I disagree with Mrs. Harris, because when I read the story, when I saw how miserable Billy 
was with his life (wife, job, etc.) it still didnt make me feel that this was the reason for Billys 

phsychic journeys.  As I read on,  I became positive that the reason for Billys journeys was 

definitly the Dresden bombing as it was quoted: "Billys response to the holocaust (Dresden) is to 

escape into an imaginary kidnaping at the hands of the Tralfamadorians......This existential 

determinnism enables Billy to endure the trauma of Dresden and to live with the threat of 

apocalypse; it also makes him an ethical basket case..." (Magill, 2729)   

	The Tralfamadorian episodes that Billy goes through are, in my opinion ways that the 

author conveys his anti-war message.  Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians to show how war is 

useless, and he uses them to insinuate that war is part of the human nature.  This point is proven 

by one of the Tralfamadorians directly saying that humans will turn to war for the slightest things, 

and they are a warlike people.  

	Again, we can use the Tralfamadorian escapes as a way to convey the message of the 

author-- we see, from the bombing of Dresden, that in the eyes of the author (whose feelings are 

channeled through Billy) war is pointless.  Billy thinks to himself Why would such a horror occur?  
For what reason?  Due to these ponderings, Billy seeks answers within himself therefore, he goes 

off to "la-la land" to where  Billy can "regroup" and seek to find the answers to his questions on 

the absurdity of war.  Billy comes up with his own "answers" to his questions.  These answers are   
given to him by the Tralfamadorians.  The aliens say that the bombing of Dresden is not the 

catastophic tradgedy that Billy perceives it to be, but just one small occurance in the vast 

pre-determined existence that we live in (according to Tralfamadorian beliefs that state all time is 

like one moment, there is no past, present, or future), therefore, war is unimportant and useless.  

The author even hints his view on war being pointless, by making the aliens tell how the universe 

will be destroyed-- not by war, as the common belief now is, but by when the aliens are testing a 

new type of fuel. 

	Yet another way that the author portrays his anti-war theme is by the life of the 

protagonist--Billy Pilgrim.  AS we learn in the novel, Billy lives a boring, unhappy life with his 

wife and children.  The author makes his life seem so pointless and poor, because all this had 

happened as a result of him going to war.  If he didnt go to war, he would probably never have 

met his future wife.	

	Also, from within Vonneguts anti-war message there is some irony spread through the war 
scenes of this novel.  In the first war scene/flashback, we see how the mighty Allied armies are 

reduced to becoming scavengers and searching for the basic neccessities to live.  These are the 

same Allied armies that were supposed to be proud and fight against evil to let peace rule.  This 

last point bring up another satire of the story, and probably the reason for Vonneguts writing of 

this book: The United States was supposed to be on the side of good and fight against forces of 

evil, such as Germany, who was burning people alive in the concentration camps.  The satirical 

part of this is , that what did the the "pure and rightious" United States do?-- burn 150,000 people 

alive in the the needless bombing of Dresden.

	Within all the examples I have listed, there is one that stands out among the rest, and is a 

theme that the author may have included but not have realized.  War is bad, according to 

Vonnegut, but, I think that when the theme says war is bad, it doesnt mean bad in an immediate 

sense, but in a long lasting sense.  By this, I mean that the action of making War is bad, but it is 

just as bad as its long lasting effects.  For example, all of Billys fantasies and all of his sorrow 

(post war) are effects of the War that have stuck with him and permanently affeted his life.  This is 
also true with the author.  As Vonnegut states and/or implies, he was in the war, and to be more 

specific, he was in Dresden.  The whole Dresden incident traumatized both Billy and Vonnegut.  

Due to his first hand observations on what occurred in Dresden, Vonnegut was so disgusted and 

shocked (as he states in the novel and outside the novel) about the incident, that it was burned into 

his mind for years to come.  Both Vonnegut and Billy both regret that they were there, but both 

seem to have a lasting effect- Billy becomes emotionally traumatized and resorts to having 

fantasies to try to escape the fact of what happened, and Vonnegut was shocked, but yet 

compelled about what happened and had the impulse to write Slaughterhouse Five, so that he 

could finally vent out all his feelings about the subject.  Both of these, as you can see are long term 
effects of War.

	In conclusion, we see that Slaughterhouse Five is underscored by its anti-war theme.  

Kurt Vonnegut has written a novel depicting the many effects of war and how they relate to 

characters in the story, including himself.  This novel can be considered an autobiographical, in the 
sense that the narrator (the author) is retelling his story of how war has affected him through the 

character of Billy Pilgrim.  They both undergo the same hardships and traumas as a result of their 

participation in the war.  Truly, this is one of the greatest anti-war novels written to date.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
