Slaughterhouse-Five

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Slaughterhouse-Five

First edition cover
Author	Kurt Vonnegut
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Philisophical, War novel
Publisher	Delacorte Press
Released	1969
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	186 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0385312083 (first edition, hardback)

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death is a 1969 novel by best-selling author Kurt Vonnegut. One of his most popular works and widely regarded as a classic, it combines science fiction elements with an analysis of the human condition from an uncommon perspective, using time travel as a plot device and the bombing of Dresden in World War II, the aftermath of which Vonnegut witnessed, as a starting point.

When the book was released, the bombing of Dresden was not widely known and was rarely discussed by veterans and historians. The book led to an increased awareness of the bombings and a reevaluation of the justifications given for aerial bombing of cities by the Allies during the war.

Contents 1 Plot introduction 1.1 Explanation of the novel's title 2 Plot summary 3 Characters in Slaughterhouse-Five 4 Major themes 5 Literary techniques 5.1 Form 5.2 Point of view and setting 6 Pop culture 7 References to other works 8 Controversy and debate 8.1 Controversial themes 8.2 References to actual history 9 Literary significance and criticism 10 Awards and nominations 11 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 12 Release details 13 See also 14 Sources, references, external links, quotations

[edit] Plot introduction

Slaughterhouse-Five is set in the 20th century. It intertwines the story of Billy Pilgrim through different time periods, most notably his experience in World War II and his relationships with his family. The book is a series of seemingly random happenings that, in combination, present the thematic elements of the novel.

[edit] Explanation of the novel's title

"Slaughterhouse-Five" refers to the slaughterhouse in which the main character, Billy Pilgrim, stays as a POW in Dresden during the firebombing. (This parallels Vonnegut's own experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden.) Vonnegut, as he does in some of his other works such as Breakfast of Champions, uses an alternative title for the book; in this case it is The Children's Crusade. He explains this in the first chapter as referring to the Children's Crusade of the 13th century, in which children were sold as slaves (the facts of the actual historical event are disputed, but for literary purposes, the purposeful selling of children into slavery is the intended meaning). This is used to mirror war which, in Vonnegut's opinion, is comparable to selling children into slavery.

[edit] Plot summary

A disoriented and ill-trained American soldier named Billy Pilgrim is captured by German soldiers and is forced to live in a makeshift prison, the deep cellars of a disused slaughterhouse in the city of Dresden, Germany. Billy has become "unstuck in time" for unexplained reasons (though it's hinted towards the end that his surviving a plane crash left him with mild brain damage) so he randomly and repeatedly visits different parts of his life, including his death. He meets, and is later kidnapped by, aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who exhibit him in a Tralfamadorian zoo with Montana Wildhack, a pornographic movie star. The Tralfamadorians see in four dimensions, the fourth dimension being time. Tralfamadorians have seen every instant of their lives already; they cannot choose to change anything about their fate, but can choose to focus on any moment in their lives that they wish.

Throughout the novel, Billy hops back and forth in time, reliving various occasions in his life; this gives him a constant sense of stage fright, as he never knows what part of his life is coming up next. He spends time on Tralfamadore; in Dresden; numbly wading through deep snow in WWII Germany before his capture; living married in America after the war; up to the moment of his murder on Earth many years later. By the time of his murder, Billy has adopted Tralfamadorian fatalism, which has given him great personal peace; he has spread this philosophy to millions of humans and has become a popular public figure on Earth.

Billy's fatalism appears to be grounded in reality (at least in the reality which Billy perceives); after noting that Billy had a copy of the Serenity Prayer in his office, the narrator says, "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future." One of his Tralfamadorian captors, who seems sympathetic to humans, says that out of 31 inhabited planets it has visited, "only on Earth is there any talk of free will."

The book examines many other events in Billy's life, including the death of his wife, his capture by the Nazis in World War II, and the infamous bombing of Dresden that was the inspiration for the book. The novel uses certain phrases repetitively, such as "so it goes"—which, used whenever death or dying is mentioned (be it that of a man, an animal, or the bubbles in champagne), serves to downplay mortality, making it routine and even humorous—and "mustard gas and roses", to denote the horrible odor of a rotting corpse or a drunk's breath.

Billy's death is the result of a strange string of events. During the fighting, Billy was an incredibly inept fighter, which according to fellow soldier Roland Weary, led to the capture of both. Because Weary blames Billy for his capture (and eventual death), Weary's morbid friend Lazzaro vows to have him killed, as, according to him, revenge is "the sweetest thing in life." Billy, who travels in time, already knows where and how he will be killed: Lazzaro has him shot after a public speaking event in a future where the United States has been balkanized. During Billy's public speech he declares that following his lecture he will be killed, so he uses this fact to convey his message that because time is another dimension all three-dimensional slices as we know them exist simultaneously. Therefore, everyone is always alive and death is not a tragic event.

[edit] Characters in Slaughterhouse-Five

• Kurt Vonnegut — As the author, Vonnegut puts himself as a minor character through the story ("That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."). He opens the story by describing his connections with the Dresden bombing, and his reasons for writing the book. He then appears as a minor character in the narrative, as well as in the form of Kilgore Trout, a failed science fiction writer who Billy Pilgrim meets in a back alley in his hometown of Ilium, New York.

• Billy Pilgrim: Billy is an optometrist trapped in a loveless marriage and residing in 'Ilium', a fictional duplicate of the city of Schenectady, New York where Vonnegut worked as a publicist for General Electric, and where several of his other novels are set. Billy Pilgrim randomly travels through time and space as a result of his abduction by the '"four-dimensional"' aliens known as the Tralfamadorians.

Pilgrim, also a prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, and his later life is greatly influenced by what he saw during the war.

He travels between parts of his life repeatedly and effortlessly, meaning that he's literally lived through the events more than once. He travels back and forth in time so often that he develops a sense of fatalism about his life; because he knows how he is going to die, and how his life is going to work out.

• Roland Weary — A man who weakly 'saves' Billy multiple times in hopes for glory and to become a war hero. Eventually Weary dies of gangrene while on the train to the camp, and blames Billy with his final words.

• Paul Lazzaro — Another POW. A sickly, ill-tempered car thief from Cicero, Illinois who hears Weary's dying words and eventually has Billy killed in revenge, many years after the war. He has a mental hit list and claims he can have anyone "killed for a thousand dollars plus traveling expenses".

• Kilgore Trout - An unsuccessful science-fiction writer who manages newspaper delivery boys and has only received one letter from a fan. Billy invites him to his wedding anniversary where Kilgore follows Billy around when he thinks Billy has seen a time window.

• Edgar Derby — An older man who pulled strings to take part in the war. He is in the German POW camp with Lazarro and Billy. He is sentenced to death for stealing a teapot in the Dresden corpse mines and executed by a firing squad. Vonnegut considers his ignominious death high irony. His son is also a soldier.

• Tralfamadorians — An alien race that look like toilet plungers. They abduct Billy and teach him about time's relation to the world as a fourth dimension, fate, and death's lack of discrimination.

• Valencia Merble — Billy's heavyset wife and mother of Billy's two children. Billy remains rather distant from her. She dies of carbon monoxide poisoning following a car accident on her way to the hospital where her husband is sent after an airplane crash.

• Robert Pilgrim — Son of Billy and Valencia. A bad kid who straightens out and becomes a Green Beret.

• Barbara Pilgrim — Daughter of Billy and Valencia. Described as a "bitchy flibbertigibbet" and having "legs like an Edwardian grand piano". She marries a fellow optometrist. She treats her father like a child and an invalid after his accident.

• Montana Wildhack — A pornographic actress whom the Tralfamadorian aliens kidnap to be Billy's mate under their supervision.

[edit] Major themes

Vonnegut most thoroughly explores the ideas of fate, free will, and the illogical nature of humans. The main character is "unstuck in time," meaning that he experiences the events of his life in a seemingly random order, with no idea which part of life he will "visit" next. As a result, his life does not end with death; rather, he experiences his own death jumbled amongst so many of his other experiences. This is followed with confirmation by one of the Tralfamadorians, who says, "I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe... Only on Earth is there any talk of free will". This device is central to Vonnegut's belief that the vast majority of humanity is completely innocent; that is, they do what they do because they must.

To the Tralfamadorians, everything always exists at the same time, and for them everyone is therefore always alive. They too have wars and tragic events (they destroy the universe testing spaceship fuels), but when asked by Billy what they do about wars, the Tralfamadorians reply that they simply ignore them. Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians to conflict with the theme he actually presents. Life, as a human, is only enjoyable with the unknown. Tralfamadorians do not actually make any choices about what they do, but have power only over what they think. To humans, ignoring a war is not an acceptable choice when we actually have free will. In the first chapter, Vonnegut (as the narrator) is told that writing an anti-war book is like writing an anti-glacier book. In the main body of the book, this belief that war is inevitable is represented by the Tralfamadorians. Their hapless destruction of the universe suggests that Vonnegut does not sympathize with their philosophy.

This illogicality of human nature is brought up with the climax of the book. Ironically the climax occurs not with the bombing of Dresden, but with the execution of a man who committed a petty theft. In all of this horror, death, and destruction, so much time is taken on the punishment of one man. Yet, the time is still taken, and Vonnegut seems to take the outside opinion of the bird asking, "Poo-tee-weet?"

[edit] Literary techniques

Two techniques Vonnegut pioneered were the use of choruses and the "plant-connect" analogies. Vonnegut used the chorus "So it goes" every time a passage deals with death, dying or mortality, as a transitional phrase to another subject, as a reminder, and as comic relief. It is also used to explain the unexplained. There are about 106 "so it goes" anecdotes laced throughout the story.

The "plant-connect" analogies are probably best explained with an example. Vonnegut uses the phrase "radium dial" to describe both a Russian's face in the prisoner's camp, and Billy Pilgrim's father's watch in the dark. This emphasizes a connection between the two. The Russian's face reminded him that the other people in the camp were human, and that moment of recognition is thus filled with hope for him. So it was with Billy's father's watch, a bastion of security and familiarity in an unfamiliar place.

Another literary technique used by Vonnegut is the metafiction device. The first chapter of the book is not about Billy Pilgrim, but a preface about how Vonnegut came to write Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut apologizes for the fact that the novel is "so short and jumbled and jangled" and explains that this is because "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre". In a similar way to Mother Night, but much more extensively, Vonnegut plays with ideas of fiction and reality. The opening chapter's very first sentence claims that "All this happened, more or less" and during Billy Pilgrim's war experiences Vonnegut himself appears briefly, followed by the narrator's note: "That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."

A work where the metafiction device is used to an even greater degree is his more recent novel Timequake. In it, Vonnegut discusses an old version of the book and how improvements were made on the original.

[edit] Form

Slaughterhouse-Five opens with Vonnegut criticizing his own work for about 20 pages, then explaining the beginning and end of the story. This is an unusual but effective technique, as the story is also written from a point of view "unstuck in time," jumping erratically within Billy's life. It encourages flexibility and resourcefulness in the reader, who must fill in many blanks and build a picture of Billy's life out of order, like a jigsaw puzzle. Vonnegut's work commonly contains such disorder.

Billy Pilgrim's life seems like a cyclone, in which his birth, youth, old age, and death are all thrown violently around by the central event, the destruction of Dresden. By giving his novel this structure, Vonnegut centers everything else the reader has learned on this horrible central event, which is the key to the book's theme.

[edit] Point of view and setting

He opens the story describing his connections with the Dresden bombing, and his reasons for writing the book. He describes himself, his book, and the fact that he believes it to be a desperate attempt at scholarly work. He then flows this into Billy Pilgrim's story, as he starts Billy's story as, "Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." This serves as a transition from Vonnegut's point of view to the true third person.

As the author, Vonnegut appears as a minor character throughout the story. The character Kilgore Trout, who Billy Pilgrim meets while the former runs a newspaper line, may also be seen as a persona of the author.

It is worth noting that the structure of Slaughterhouse-Five closely resembles a Tralfamadorian novel, a different kind of literature Pilgrim encounters en route to Tralfamadore.

[edit] Pop culture

• The book is mentioned in the 1984 film Footloose and the subsequent musical of the same name.

• James Van Der Beek is seen reading the book in the 1999 film Varsity Blues.

[edit] References to other works

Like many of Vonnegut's books, certain characters from other stories make notable appearances in order to bring his novels together. Kilgore Trout, a major character in many of Vonnegut's novels, appears significantly in Slaughterhouse-Five. He is a friend of Billy Pilgrim, and fulfils odd roles throughout the story. In one case he is the only non-optometrist at a party, and therefore is the odd-man-out. He takes the role of making fun of everything the ideal American family holds true, such as heaven, hell and sin. In his opinion, people do not know if the things they do turn out to be good or bad, and if they turn out to be bad, they go to hell where "the burning never stops hurting."

Other cameo appearances include Eliot Rosewater of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Howard W. Campbell, Jr. of Mother Night. There is also a character called Rumfoord, a relative of Winston Niles Rumfoord in The Sirens of Titan (Rumfoord family members are prone to pop up throughout Vonnegut's work).

[edit] Controversy and debate

[edit] Controversial themes

Because of its realistic and frequent depiction of swearing by American soldiers, and some sexually explicit content, Slaughterhouse-Five is among one of the most frequently banned works in American literature, and has often been removed from school libraries and curricula. Conversely, this book has also become a part of the curriculum of certain schools. The suitability of the work has even been considered by the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was one of the works at issue in Island Trees School District v. Pico 457 US 853 (1982). The novel appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number sixty nine.

[edit] References to actual history

The bombing of Dresden in World War II is the largest historical reference in the novel. Slaughterhouse-Five also mentioned in passing that homosexual men were among the people targeted for death in the Nazi Holocaust, which was not widely known at the time.

Not all of the book's historical references have escaped questioning. Vonnegut drew the Dresden casualty statistics the book cites from David Irving's then-bestselling book The Destruction of Dresden, and those figures have since been retracted.

However, since Vonnegut witnessed the bombing first-hand as a prisoner of war, there is little reason to doubt his qualitative description of the post-bombing city, including his likening of the city afterwards to the surface of the moon. The total amount of high explosives dropped was several times greater than the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and target photographs also showed the destruction of 90% of the city.

[edit] Literary significance and criticism

The March 31, 1969 review of Slaughterhouse-Five in the New York Times was glowing, yet at the end conceded that like most Vonnegut books, you either love it or you hate it. New York Times Book Review of Slaughterhouse-Five

[edit] Awards and nominations

Slaughterhouse-Five was listed by Time Magazine as one of the hundred best English-language books from 1923 to present

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

A successful film adaptation of the book, also called Slaughterhouse-Five, was made in 1972. The film won the Prix du Jury at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, as well as a Hugo Award, and Saturn Award. Vonnegut has commended the film greatly.

[edit] Release details

1969, United States, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., Paperback

[edit] See also

• Roman à clef

[edit] Sources, references, external links, quotations

• Vonnegut.com:
• Kilgore Trout Collection
• The Vonnegut Web