... author and his writings, I found Kurt Vonnegut to be even more mesmerizing. Learning about his life and discovering the connections between his books and his life were even more interesting. A biography on just Kurt Vonnegut's life, and not his novels, is a book in itself. In his novels, Slapstick and Slaughter House Five, both protagonists either were from or had family living ... lack of interest in his majors (chemistry and biology), the university was planning to kick him out. Vonnegut, however, beat the university to the punch by enlisting in the army. (Biography) During his time i...

• Word Count: 2135
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... and individuals. In the science fiction novels Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut uses an antiwar theme that war is like cancer to society and our planet, in order to prove that war is not justifiable under any consequence. In Slaughterhouse-Five, the main character is a veteran who has flashbacks to when he was in World War ... like Billy in Slaughterhouse-Five to show the psychological damage that war does on a person. He then uses ice-nine to symbolize the capability atomic weapons have to destroy our planet and kill us all. He then explains ...

• Word Count: 1434
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Kilgore Trout deliver his newspapers. As you know from the reading, the most common thing that Billy wants to discuss is Tralfamadore. Billy truly believes that the planet Tralfamadore does exist. The inhabitants of this planet are called Tralfamadorians. Kilgore Trout writes a novel called, A Gospel From Outer Space, and on page 108, Billy says, AIt was about a visitor from outer space, shaped ... on display for these extraterrestrials to view. This is identical to what had happened to Billy; he had been captured by extraterrestrial, put on display in a zoo on the foreign planet, and g...

• Word Count: 1368
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the dark side of war Billy is convinced that there is a better world somewhere, one that would accept him for who he is. Billy becomes insane and envisions an imaginary planet called Tralfamadore where he is kidnapped and held captive in an exhibit. In Tralfamadore Billy is given everything he wants and is treated nicely. "Most Tralfamadorians had no way of ... to envision a better, but imaginary world and ultimately lose contact with the real world and make him go insane. His father who abused him, the fire-bombing of Dresden, the planet of Tralfamadore, and the Veteran's Mental Hospit...

• Word Count: 1265
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... and placed in a zoo where he is given a human-appropriate habitat underneath a glass dome, and spends several months there with his human mate Montana Wildhack. After his time on their planet is over, he is sent back to earth to the exact night he first left, meaning no time has actually passed at all. From then, he travels back and forth ... it before-years ago, in the veterans' hospital. It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212" (p. 201). I think Vonnegut purposely placed this bit ...

• Word Count: 1646
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and placed in a zoo where he is given a human-appropriate habitat underneath a glass dome, and spends several months there with his human mate Montana Wildhack. After his time on their planet is over, he is sent back to earth to the exact night he first left, meaning no time has actually passed at all. From then, he travels back and forth ... it before-years ago, in the veterans' hospital. It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212" (p. 201). I think Vonnegut purposely placed this bit ...

• Word Count: 1646
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and placed in a zoo where he is given a human-appropriate habitat underneath a glass dome, and spends several months there with his human mate Montana Wildhack. After his time on their planet is over, he is sent back to earth to the exact night he first left, meaning no time has actually passed at all. From then, he travels back and forth ... before "years ago, in the veterans' hospital. It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212 " (p. 201). I think Vonnegut purposely placed this bit o...

• Word Count: 1541
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... , "could suggest that all the time and space travels are tricks of Billy's mind hallucinatory escape from reality in such circumstances [Dresden] seems completely plausible" (197). Billy travels to the planet Tralfamadore many times throughout the novel. There, he learns and adopts the Tralfamadorian concept of time, that all moments end themselves repeatedly. One critic, Tim Hildebrand agrees that Billy has ... turned to the comforting Tralfamadorian time notion and quotes Billy's experience on the alien planet to support his argument (130-131). Billy says (in the novel) "The most impor...

• Word Count: 1339
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography

... in his hometown of Ilium, New York, as an optometrist, with his wife and has 2 children. He is later taken by aliens, Trafalmadorians, and transported to a zoo on their home planet. Vonnegut - In the first and last chapters, Vonnegut explains why he wrote this novel. Also, throughout some war scenes, he describes himself as being a character, most likely trying to show ... be true, about the 4th dimension. This scene also clears any regrets Billy had throughout his life. He realizes that Dresden and war in general is the worst thing this planet goes through, and that war will never ceas...

• Word Count: 1657
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... a fictitious element to this book - the idea of time travel. Billy jumps through time, experiencing various events of his life completely out of order. While he is on the alien planet of Tralfamadore, he is taught that all time happens simultaneously, and therefore, nobody ever truly dies. At first this seems like a good thing, but to Billy Pilgrim, who cannot chose ... times it is simply because he is remembering it. The book has four main settings. Germany during world war two; Ilium, New York, before and after the war; an alien planet called Tralfamadore; and Vonnegut's actual life w...

• Word Count: 1466
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... then protect its existence, one must understand uncertainty and allow oneself to evaluate its meaning. Lastly, Vonnegut was impolite about environmentalism which he satirized how humans had unthinkably destroyed their planet. To illustrate, Vonnegut portrays environmentalism as a "Yeast Organism." In other words, "they killed themselves by destroying their own environment with yeast shit" (214). Specifically, he said ... ...

• Word Count: 2114
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... make sense of his own delusion, which only adds to his confusion. With the belief that he has been abducted by small green aliens and placed in a zoo on another planet, Billy is unable to distinguish reality from his own fantasy. His trauma from the war is so immense that his mind must leave Earth to get away from the pain ... ...

• Word Count: 1395
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... Billy's time-travel, rather "the craziness of a dying young man with his shoes full of snow" (49). Later in Billy's life, he believes he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, and they instruct him on the nature of time, and give meaning to Billy's time-travelling. There is some question over whether this is an actual event in Billy ... ...

• Word Count: 2002
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... different points within his own life uncontrollably. The majority of the book takes place during World War II, Billy's time spent as a prisoner of war in Germany, and on the planet Tralfamadore (where Billy was taken after being abducted by aliens, or "Tralfamadorians"). Vonnegut uses these two separate, and very different, settings to get his point across. Generally, when a person hears ... ...

• Word Count: 1507
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School