Point Based On Books Slaughterhouse-Five
| Title | : | Slaughterhouse-Five |
| Author | : | Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 275 pages |
| Published | : | January 12th 1999 by Dial Press (first published 1969) |
| Categories | : | Young Adult. Contemporary. Romance. Fiction. Health. Mental Health |
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Paperback | Pages: 275 pages Rating: 4.08 | 1075601 Users | 25392 Reviews
Explanation To Books Slaughterhouse-Five
There are some terrible reviews of SH5 floating around Goodreads, but one particularly awful sentiment is that Slaughterhouse-Five isn't anti-war.This is usually based on the following quote.
For context, Mr. Rumfoord is an old military historian described as "hateful and cruel" who wants to see weaklings like Billy exterminated.
"It had to be done," Rumfoord told Billy, speaking of the destruction of Dresden.
"I know," said Billy.
"That's war."
"I know. I'm not complaining"
"It must have been hell on the ground."
"It was," said Billy Pilgrim.
"Pity the men who had to do it."
"I do."
"You must have had mixed feelings, there on the ground."
"It was all right," said Billy. "Everything is all right, and everybody has to do exactly what he does. I learned that on Tralfamadore."
On Tralfamadore, Billy was introduced to the revelation that all things happen exactly as they do, and that they will always happen that way, and that they will never happen any other way. Meaning, time is all at once. The aliens, incidentally, admit to destroying the universe in a comical accident fated far into the future, and they're very sorry, but so it goes. <- passive acceptance
The entire story up to this point has been about Billy, buffeted like a powerless pathetic leaf in a storm, pushed this way and that by forces entirely outside his tiny purview. He lays catatonically in a hospital bed after the plane crash and the death of his wife, and all the time traveling back and forth from Dresden where toddlers and families and old grannies and anti-war civilians were burned alive in a carefully organized inferno (so it goes), and Billy is about ready to agree to absolutely anything.
It can't be prevented. It can't be helped.
You're powerless, after a while. What hope have we, or anyone caught in the middle of a war, or even the poor soldiers who are nothing but pawns and children (hence the children's crusade), to influence these gigantic, global events?
Therefore, Billy agrees with the hateful, the cruel Mr. Rumfoord, who is revising his military history of WWII, having previously forgotten to mention the Dresden bombing. Women and children, not evaporated instantly, but melted slowly by chemicals and liquid flame, their leftovers, according to Billy, lying in the street like blackened logs, or in piles of families who died together in their little homes.
Incidentally, how can anything be pro-war or anti-war? Because being anti-war is a bit like being anti-conflict, anti-death, and anti-suffering. Is there a book that's pro these things? Is there a book that touches on the subject of war and is not against it?
We don't support wars, though we are sometimes forced to accept them. Anyone who thinks that the bombing of Dresden was necessary is delusional.
It's like saying, "yo, look how they bombed these innocents - that shit was wrong! Let's go bomb some innocents, too."
That's the sad truth of it.
Describe Books Conducive To Slaughterhouse-Five
| Original Title: | Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death |
| ISBN: | 0385333846 (ISBN13: 9780385333849) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Billy Pilgrim, Kilgore Trout, Eliot Rosewater, Roland Weary, Paul Lazzaro, Edgar Derby, Robert Pilgrim, Valencia Merble, Barbara Pilgrim, Howard W. Campbell Jr., Montana Wildhack, Bertam Copeland Rumfoord |
| Setting: | Dresden,1945(Germany) Tralfamadore Ilium(United States) …more Ardennes,1944(Belgium) …less |
| Literary Awards: | Hugo Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (1970), Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (1969), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1970), Chicago Publishers' Award (1970) |
Rating Based On Books Slaughterhouse-Five
Ratings: 4.08 From 1075601 Users | 25392 ReviewsCrit Based On Books Slaughterhouse-Five
At first, the absurdity of Slaughterhouse-Five (now read 5 times) makes it difficult to take seriously.However, part of Vonnegut's magic is that this absurdity becomes impossible to ignore (and increasingly powerful as the narrative moves forward). Vonnegut actually wants you to focus on the absurd. It works itself not only into the narrative, where our protagonist becomes unstuck in time and is abducted by aliens, but also into questions about war, civilization, identity and theories of time375. Slaughterhouse-Five = The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, Kurt VonnegutSlaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) is a science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut about the World War II experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim, from his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant, to postwar and early years. It is generally recognized as Vonnegut's most influential and popular work. A central event is
A strange and intriguing book that I found very hard to rate: a mixture of wartime memoir and sci fi - occasionally harrowing, sometimes funny and other times thought-provoking.PLOT It is the episodic story of Billy Pilgrim, a small town American boy, who is a POW in the second world war, later becomes a successful optometrist and who occasionally and accidentally travels in time to other periods of his life, so he has "memories of the future". Oh, he also gets abducted by aliens, along with
Contains spoilersSlaughterhouse-Five is about a man called Billy Pilgrim who time-travels frequently. He was in the Second World War and, captured, was sent to Dresden to work in a malt syrup factory before the city was bombed. He studied optometry and had a nervous breakdown. He married the daughter of a rich optometrist, and became rich as well. He was abducted by aliens called Tralfamadorians, who put him in a zoo with a young porn actress, Montana Wildhack, whom they also abducted. He had a
A fun visit with cantankerous old Uncle Kurt. Vonnegut is on a short list of my favorite authors and this is perhaps his most famous work. Not his best, but most recognizable. Billy Pilgrim is also one of his best characters. (Kilgore Trout is his best).I liked it as I like everything I have read of him. The recurring themes and characters, use of repetition for emphasis and comic relief, his irreverence and postmodern lack of sensitivity shine bright as ever here. Vonnegut can be funny and grim
The God of AccidentsOnly God knows all of time as if it were the same instant; only God can annihilate the Universe; only God knows our innermost thoughts: so contends Judaic, Christian, and Muslim theology. For God, therefore, there is no cause and effect; everything just is. And because there is no cause and effect, there is no issue of free will. Free will is an idea created by human beings who can't imagine any other way to escape the mechanical inevitability of causality. In Slaughterhouse
The novel is a fabulist take on the destruction of Dresdenthe Florence of the Elbe, the Jewel Boxby Allied Bombing at the end of World War II. Author Vonnegut witnessed the mayhem as a 23-year old American POW. There are no characters here, really. Billy Pilgrim and the others are flat flat flat. Vonnegut's point being that the suffering brought on by the war dehumanized and diminished everyone to one-dimensionality. It's an interesting idea and a perfect match for his spare style. I remember
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