Literature Analysis

Slaughterhouse-Five

1. Billy Pilgrim is "unstuck in time", which means that he jumps back and forth in to moments of his life. Since, he's "unstuck in time" the story of his life is separated into pieces throughout the book. He was abducted by extraterrestrials called Tralfamadorians. At their planet he is kept in a zoo with a movie actress and he learns of the Tralfamadorian's perception of time. They tell Billy that when you die, you're just dead at that moment and that you're still alive in another time. It's hard to understand, because the Tralfamadorians know about the fourth dimension. Billy's life story consists of him getting drafted into the war during World War 2 and how he became hospitalized from nervous breakdowns from memories of Dresden, a town that was bombed while Billy was being held as a prisoner of war. Billy raised two kids and became really wealthy after the war. The night after the wedding of Billy's daughter is when he gets kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians. When he returns back to Earth, he gets in an accident in a plane and is the only survivor. He then attempts to notify people about what he learned about time and the Tralfamadorians.

2. I think one of the main themes of Slaughterhouse-Five is that war is really destructive. Billy suffered greatly in the war and even survived a bombing of a German town named Dresden, because him and other American prisoners of war were being contained in a meat locker at the time. He saw many people die during the war. At one point he had to dig holes to look for dozens of dead bodies in Dresden. The war might have traumatized Billy and is probably the reason he says he's unstuck in time. He most likely made up the Tralfamadorians to make an excuse of why war happens, since the Tralfamadorians taught him that you can not change time because it will always be structured the same way. He's hallucinating as a way to escape from a world full of war and destruction.

3. I chose this book sort of randomly. I saw the book and just chose to read it. Once, I started reading, it began to intrigue me. The way this book was structured was new and interesting to me and it seems like the author put some deep meaning into the book that I yet have to unearth.

4. When thinking if this book was realistic, I figured it is both realistic and non-realistic. The part about being abducted by aliens is obviously very unrealistic, but everything about the war and the struggles he goes through is very realistic. I did not find any connections between the book and people or events in my life, since I've never been in a war obviously and I do not know anybody that has been in a war like World War 2.

5. The tone of the author, Kurt Vonnegut, makes Billy very unemotional. For example, "Valencia adored Billy. She was crying and yelping so hard as she drove that she missed the correct turnoff from the throughway.", shows that Billy doesn't really have much feeling for his wife and I think the term "yelping" isn't a very sympathetic way of describing someone grieving over they're husband being hospitalized. Also the author always wrote "So it goes." after almost every death, showing that Billy didn't find death that bad since he believes that you're still alive in another moment. For example, "His name was Howard W. Campbell, Jr. He would later hang himself while awaiting trial as a war criminal.So it goes" and "It is aimed at him from the darkened press box. In the next moment, Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes." shows that the author wanted to convey Billy as unsympathetic and not carrying about death.

6. This novel had many literary elements throughout the story.
  1.The whole book itself was an allusion since the bombing of Dresden was an actual historical event.
  2.When the author adds "So it goes" at the end of someone's death helps explain the tone of the author like, "The Germans carried the corpse out. The corpse was Wild Bob. So it goes"(pg.69).
  3. When Billy gets scolded for having horses that were bleeding and suffering pull his wagon, he cries for the first time helps readers understand that Billy is crying,because the horses are innocent victims of suffering just like Billy in the war,"When Billy saw the condition of his means of transportation, he burst into tears".(pg.197).
  4. A prayer Billy has framed in his office, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."(pg.60) helps readers understand that Billy received serenity from the Tralfamadorians by telling him that you can not change the past since time will always be structured the same and he gets courage to attempt to tell everyone else the same thing the Tralfamadorians told him to change people's view on death.
  5. When Billy says something smells like "mustard gas and roses" the author is using imagery. He uses this to describe the smell of the corpses at Dresden, "..and the stink was like roses and mustard gas."(pg.214)
  6. The author uses imagery when people are sleeping. He describes them as "nestled like spoons", "...nestled like spoons in their big double bed."(pg.72).
  7. Another use of imagery that the author uses frequently is "ivory and blue". It is a constant color that the author uses to describe things, "He looked down at his bare feet. They were ivory and blue."(pg.72)
  8.When Billy is looking at books from Tralfamadore, there are stars separating each section of the novel. They are supposed to contain their own short message to create a beautiful scene and copies of the actual book Slaughterhouse-Five has the same stars separating the sections, " ...the books were laid out in brief clumps of symbols separated by stars."(pg.88).
  9. There is figurative language when the Tralfamadorians describe earthlings as machines and Billy accepts their reasoning, "Lionel Merble was a machine. Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the universe is a machine."(pg.154).
 10. There is irony when Billy decides to spread the idea of no such thing as free will and other things he learned from the Tralfamadorians, but he makes the free choice of reaching out to people to inform them of his ideas, "...telling about the flying saucers and Monatan Wildhack, and so on."(pg.206).

Characterization

1. Examples of direct characterization are Roland Weary and Edgar Derby. You can immediately see that Roland is a though guy and that Edgar is a nice guy. Examples of indirect characterization would be Billy and Kilgore Trout. Through their actions and word you can see Billy is possibly mentally ill and unemotional and Kilgore Trout is bitter and an unappreciated author. Characters that have direct characterization tend to be less interesting and not as important than indirect characters in novels.

2. When the author is focusing on character the author's diction changes, because he uses more adjectives than in other sentences. For example, "...the scouts, clever, graceful, quiet. They had rifles. Next came the anti-tank gunner, clumsy and dense, warning Germans away with a Colt .45 automatic in one hand and a trench knife in the other."(pg.32).

3. Billy is dynamic, because he was living a normal life, but after meeting the Tralfamadorians he changed his view on life and death. Billy is a round character, because there is a lot to him. He is unsympathetic, but also weeps to himself at times,

4. I felt like I met the author Kurt Vonnegut, because the way he wrote this novel interested me very much. There are little details added into the text that I noticed that I found pretty cool. For example, in the beginning when the novel starts of with Kurt it says that he would make drunk phone calls to old girlfriends and that his breath smelled of mustard gas and roses. This detail stood out to me, because when Billy went into his daughters old room her phone rang, "Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath- mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number. Billy hung up."(pg.73) and that could have been Kurt calling Billy's daughter. I could be just thinking about too hard, but it was pretty cool to me that it could have been the author of the book about Billy breaking the fourth wall.

Enduring Memory

     Ideas that will be held in my memory from this book are the ideas of being alive in another moment and the prayer Billy had in his office. I do not completely believe that when you die you're still alive in another moment. What I got out of that ideas is that I should cherish all of the good moments on my life, because you're still alive in this moment. The prayer in the book, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."(pg.60), will stick in my memory, because the message it sends is very inspiring. It tells me that I should attempt to change things for the better and not waste my time attempting to change things that should not be changed or meddled with.