slaughterhouse five by kurt vonnegut: handout
DESCRIPTION
Topic: The Role of Science Fiction in the NovelTRANSCRIPT
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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)
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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