Slaughterhouse-Fiveor The Children’s Crusade:A Duty-Dance with Death

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)• Born to an upper-middle class family who lost their

wealth during the Great Depression. His mother committed suicide. • Majored in Biology and Chemistry at Cornell University.

He was also a managing editor for the student paper. • Was a POW in WWII. Captured by Germans in Battle of

the Bulge. Lived through the Dresden bombings. • After the war, he studied Anthropology at the

University of Chicago.• He worked briefly as a publicist for GE, but soon

resigned to dedicate his life to writing. • He died from a fall in 2007.

“We could have saved the world, but we were just too damned lazy.”

The Bombing of Dresden• From February 13-15, 1945, the British and

American militaries dropped 3,900 tons of high explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city of Dresden, Germany. Dresden was not considered a hub of Germany’s military. The only industrial support of German’s aggression was in the suburbs, not the city. • Over 25,000 people (mostly civilians) were killed. • The bombing is internationally considered a war

crime. • Vonnegut and other survivors attempted to bury

the bodies of those killed, but the task was so futile that the Nazi’s sent in flamethrowers to completely incinerate the remains. The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is. One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I’m in. --Vonnegut

The Novel• Published in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War (after the

Tet) and during the Cold War.• He became the voice of the generation’s counter-culture. • A Semi-Autobiographical piece of Post-Modern fiction based on

Vonnegut’s experiences in Dresden during WWII. • An anti-war book that he proclaimed to be a failure “because

there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre”• A book that questions time, war, fate, sanity, art and

imagination• One of the most commonly banned books. In 2011, a school

district banned it; the Vonnegut library responded by sending 150 copies to the local high school.

Notice the shape of the title.

Structure• A framed novel. Vonnegut is the first-person narrator of the first and tenth

chapter. • It is metafiction in that Vonnegut wrestles with constructing a story about war

and the purposelessness and senselessness of its construction. • He tells you the beginning, climax, and resolution to the novel in the first chapter.

• The core of the novel is told through peripheral narration. Although it seems to be third-person-omniscient, the author sometimes inserts himself in the text (especially in the Dresden scenes).• Chapters 2-9 tells the story of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, as he becomes

“unstuck in time.” The plot is non-linear (oh so post-modern). The action can vacillate among several different time periods in Billy’s life. (There is no logic to war; there is no logic to time.) • The narration is filled with black humor.

Themes

• War and Death• Time• Fate v. Free Will• Human Suffering and Dehumanization• Sight (Literal and Figurative) and Truth• Art (Specifically Literature) and its Creation• Science Fiction and Aliens• Emptiness of Religion• Freedom and Confinement • Commercialism and Wealth (esp. American Dream)

Motifs

• So it goes• And so on• Blue and Ivory• Princess• Mustard Gas and Roses• Serenity Prayer• Jesus Christ• Nestled like spoons• Bugs in Amber• Poo-Tee-Weet and Birds

• Fire and Ash• Eyes• Stars• Adam and Eve• Gold and Silver• Orange and Black Stripes• Somewhere a big dog barked • A voice like a big bronze gong• Why you? Why me?• Um

So it goes…