Version: Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade A Duty-Dance with Death (A Dial Press Trade Paperback) (E-Book)
GENERAL
1. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is told from a third person perspective looking onto Billy Pilgrim's life. Billy is looking to write a book on his experience in the fire bombing of Dresden during the second world war. He travels back (and forward) in time and re-experiences the war, his marriage, his trip to the planet Trulfamadore, an airplane crash, and his death. Before going through these things it is important to note Vonnegut gestured many times that these "trips" are a symptom of the war, and some of the instances are real and some are not. On the real side of things Billy was in the war as a soldier, very cowardly and clumsy, and gets captured by the Germans. He gets sent to an prisoner of war camp, then to a holding place in Dresden, Germany. The holding place is the fifth house at the slaughterhouse, which ends up saving him from the bombing. He is married to a girl named Valencia, and has a son and a daughter. He gets in a plane crash, and his wife dies trying to get to the hospital to see him. On the fake side of things, he gets abducted by Trulfamadorians, and put into a zoo for display, as well as sees his own death in the future.
2. Why? That is the question that the novel incites. Why do things happen. Its answer, is that things indeed happen, and they will continue to happen. So it goes.
3. This book is filled with dark humor. It utilizes short sentences to tell the story, and many short witty comments or side stories to fill the book. ""Why me?" he asked the guard. The guard shoved him back into ranks. "Vy you? Vy anybody?" he said."
"Billy got off his lounge chair now, went into the bathroom and took a leak. The crowd went wild."
"Why don't you go f*** your yourself?
Don't think I haven't tried," the Blue Fairy Godmother answered."
4. Literary Elements:
1. Motif: The repeated phrase which signifies the theme of the story is "So it goes." "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes." Page 23
2. Metonymy: The third bullet was for the filthy flamingo, who stopped dead center in the road when the lethal bee buzzed past his ear. Page 27
3. Allusion: "Weary looked like Tweedledum or Tweedledee, all bundled up for battle. He was short and thick." Page 30-31
4. Illustrations: Vonnuget actually provided three or four small illustrations to add to the writing. (Page 79)
5. Dark Humor: "Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel. This was in accordance with the Third Law of Motion according to Sir Isaac Newton...This can be useful in rocketry."
6. Aphorism: "There is no why."
7. Juxtaposition of attitudes: When Billy was stuck on a boxcar to be sent off to a German camp, he had a hobo is his car who stated, "I been hungrier than this. I been in worse places than this. This ain't so bad."
8. Symbolism: "But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. They were naked. They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them"
9. Irony: "The dog, who had sounded so ferocious in the winter distances, was a female German shepherd. She was shivering. Her tail was between her legs.She had been borrowed that morning form a farmer. She had never been to war before. She had no idea what game was being played. Her name was Princess." Page 39.
10. Perspective: "The soldiers' eyes were filled with a bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh." Page 38
11. Repetition: "The congregation had been theoretically spotted from the air by a theoretical enemy. They were all theoretically dead now. The theoretical corpses laughed and ate a hearty noontime meal."
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Direct Characterization:
"He had been unpopular because he was stupid and fat and mean, and smelled like bacon no matter how much he washed." Page 28
"All this responsibility at such an early age made her a bitchy flibbertigibbet." Page 24
"Bill didn't want to marry ugly Valencia. She was on of the symptoms of his disease. He knew he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to her, when he begged her to take the diamond ring and be his companion for life." Page 71
Indirect Characterization:
"They supposed that he was a splendid specimen. This had a pleasant effect on Billy, who began to enjoy his body for the first time." Page 74
""Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is-" said Lazzaro, "it's revenge."" Page 88
2. Yes the authors diction changes from character to character. Billy overall is fairly plain. The Englishmen are very proud. The American prisoners are very vulgar. Valencia is very apologetic about her appearance.
3. The protagonist is static. The only reason for this being that he seems to have already lived his life before the story had begun. The whole story is his memories of things before, and therefore he does not change his mind.
4. No. Although the whole story was based on Billy, the story was not told from his perspective. It was third person looking into his life. It mainly described the actions around him, rather than the character himself.
Note: I recommend this book highly
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