slaughterhouse five by kurt vonnegut: handout

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Topic: The Role of Science Fiction in the Novel

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  • Jackie Lock Mr. Leonardo

    ENG 4U1

    The Role of Science Fiction in Slaughterhouse 5

    Thesis: Vonnegut incorporates the elements of science fiction within his novel as a psychologically striking method to

    portray a soldiers post-war turmoil within the mind, while establishing post-modern philosophies in the narration of the

    alternate universe.

    State of Mind: Defensive Mechanisms

    Constant Recollections: Fear and Trauma

    He is in a constant state of fright, he says,

    because he never knows what part of his life

    he is going to have to act in next. (Vonnegut

    23)

    Disjointed and Emotional

    blinked in 1965, traveled in time to 1958.

    He was at a banquet in honor of a Little

    League team of which his son Robert was a

    member. (Vonnegut 45)

    .blinked in 1958, traveled in time to 1961.

    It was New Years Eve, and Billy was

    disgracefully drunk at a party where

    everybody was in optometry or married to an

    optometrist. (Vonnegut 46)

    Now somebody was shaking Billy awake.

    Billy still felt drunk, was still angered by the

    stolen steering wheel. He was back in World

    War Two again, behind the German lines,

    (Vonnegut 47).

    Defense Mechanisms

    They threw Billy into shrubberythey

    menaced him with their machine pistols, as

    though they were capturing him then. Billys

    smile as he came out of the shrubbery was at

    least as peculiar as Mona Lisas, for he was

    simultaneously on foot in Germany in 1944

    and riding his Cadillac in 1967. Germany

    dropped away, and 1967 became bright and

    clear (Vonnegut 58)

    Dealing With Death

    When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he

    thinks is that the dead person is in bad

    condition in that particular moment, but that

    the same person is just fine in plenty of other

    moments. 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. (Vonnegut 27)

    Secondary Source: Vonnegut never says his alien stories are imaginary, but Pilgrim does read science-fiction novels with similar plots. Real or not, the Tralfamadorians are a coping mechanism that enables him to accept empty tragedies. He clings to the Tralfamadorian saying about life and death: "So it goes. (Cellania 2011) he believed in such a science fictional element as the Tralfamadorians four-dimensional view, because if those who die only appear to die, he could mitigate the pain caused to him by the loss of his beloved wife as well as annul the absurdity and inhumanity of its circumstances (Nitta 2011)

  • Jackie Lock Mr. Leonardo

    ENG 4U1

    Allows for Narration and Fictional Elements

    Narration Technique: Time travel enables non-linear plot

    It begins like this: Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in

    time. It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet? (Vonnegut 22)

    Manipulation of Fiction versus Reality:

    And Billy had seen the greatest massacre in European

    history, which was the fire-bombing of Dresden. So it goes.

    So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their

    universe. Science fiction was a big help, (Vonnegut 101)

    Fiction versus Reality

    So Billy read it. He knew where Montana Wildhack really

    was, of course. She was back on Tralfamadore, taking care

    of the baby, but the magazine, which was called Midnight

    Pussycats, promised that she was wearing a cement

    overcoat under thirty fathoms of saltwater in San Pedro

    Bay. (Vonnegut 204)

    Secondary Source: By having Billy un-stuck in time, Vonnegut can incorporate the characters present-day opinions into past-life events. However, much of past-tense writing is already like this, particularly memoir writing. Narrators are frequently viewing things with a somewhat long lens and insinuating their current viewpoints onto their past selves. In this way, many writers are unstuck in time, (Britt 2011). Science-fiction, as a fictional "lie," can be a splendid vehicle for distancing ourselves from day-to-day reality and giving us greater critical objectivity, (De Castro 1994).

    The Authors Voice in the Aliens: Anti-War

    Billy expected the Tralfamadorians to be baffled and

    alarmed by all the wars and other forms of murder on

    EarthScience fiction had led him to expect that. But the

    subject of war never came up until Billy brought it up

    himself, (Vonnegut 116)

    Billy felt that he had spoken soaringly. He was baffled when

    he saw the Tralfamadorians close ther little hands on their

    eyes. He knew from past experience what this meant: He was

    being stupid, (Vonnegut 116)

    Tralfamadorians Philosophies: A Post-modern Aspect

    All moments, past, present, and future, always have

    existed, always will existThey [Tralfamadorians] can see

    how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at

    any moment that interests them. (Vonnegut 27)

    All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend

    itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. (Vonnegut

    86)

    - Pre-determined fate, fragmented time; all moments exist

    Secondary Source: Furthermore, the science fiction section is inserted in the story to unfold the postmodernist argument concerning timeThe Tralfamadorians teach Pilgrim how to view his life as a long line or rather a circular structure of events, the thing that leads the generic imprint of these moments to always express themselves in the same way. (Diwany 87)

    Post-modern Perspectives