Slaughterhouse Five And Its Depictions Of Key World War II...

Josh Cohen Mrs. Hallstrom English Honors 4 8 May 2016 Slaughterhouse-Five and its Depiction of Key World War II Events Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is an interesting but complicated novel about a man bouncing through time and space. The novel is a satire with elements of science fiction, although Kurt Vonnegut incorporates into the plot some of his actual experiences as a World War II soldier and prisoner of war. Vonnegut’s lead character and protagonist is Billy Pilgrim, a person who time travels throughout the novel. Vonnegut brings the readers along on Billy’s wild and unpredictable journey which goes in several different directions. While this complicates the story, Vonnegut keeps returning to the theme of war by returning Billy back to his time as a soldier during World War II. Vonnegut devotes significant portions of Slaughterhouse-Five to the war theme, capturing the zeitgeist of World War II through vivid and highly accurate depictions of key events such as the Battle of the Bulge, the use of boxcars to transport prisoners of war, and the bombing of Dresden by the Allied forces. By transporting Billy back to the Battle of the Bulge, Vonnegut effectively captures the harsh realities of this significant and vitally important World War II event. Early in the novel, Billy is thrust into his regiment when â€Å"it was in the process of being destroyed by the Germans in the famous Battle of the Bulge† (Vonnegut 40). Billy finds himself in the middle of this difficultShow MoreRelated The Life of Billy Pilgrim in Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five or The Childrens Crusade2042 Words   |  9 PagesThe Life of Billy Pilgrim in Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five or The Childrens Crusade      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marked by two world wars and the anxiety that accompanies humanitys knowledge of the ability to destroy itself, the Twentieth Century has produced literature that attempts to depict the plight of the modern man living in a modern waste land. If this sounds dismal and bleak, it is. And that is precisely why the dark humor of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. shines through our post-modern age. The devastatingRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesLinda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape