... what. We are going to face hard times in life, but we have to accept that and move forward without looking back and regretting the past. Slaughterhouse Five gives us three views of moving forward: the Tralfamadorian's, Kurt Vonnegut's and poor Billy's view who is stuck in the middle. As we are comparing these views what we are really diving into is the views ... Billy, more importantly, to move on from troubles in his life, but since Billy is human, this concept, to him, brings challenge. First, let us take a look at Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse Five. As part of being hum...

• Word Count: 1347
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... "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 ... the latter, it fits into the strange, delusional mental state of Billy Pilgrim after experiencing the terror of war. When Billy is abducted by the Tralfamadorians, he is taught the principles of time as the Trafalmadorians see it. They believe that all points in time exist simultaneously, ... into his bizarre delusional...

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

Many writers in history have written science fiction novels and had great success with them, but only a few have been as enduring over time as Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five is a personal novel which draws upon Vonnegut's experience's as a scout in World War Two, his capture and becoming a prisoner of war, and his witnessing of the fire bombing of Dresden in February of 1945, the greatest man ... more than peaks in a range of mountains, irremovable and able to be visited numerous times. The point of view that Slaughterhouse-Five is written from also affects the way t...

• Word Count: 1028
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"Slaughterhouse Five" Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a novel involving the character Billy Pilgrim. Billy is a WWII veteran, German prisoner of war, and survivor of the bombing of Dresden, who insists that he has become stuck in time. Having witnessed and survived the atrocities of WWII, there is no doubt that Billy Pilgrim left the war traumatized and unstable. Many events and experiences lived by Billy ... the war is so immense that his mind must leave Earth to get away from the pain within. Billy is triggered by normal events within his everyday life, which slingshot him through time back to the Bo...

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

"Slaughterhouse 5," by Kurt Vonnegut is literary masterpiece that reflects the horrors of war and death using science fiction and satirical approach. This anti-war novel centers on Billy Pilgrim, a meek, feeble optometry student who ... Slaughterhouse-Five was a full day and night of high-explosive demolition of streets, buildings, monuments, houses, and living human organisms, followed by the towering cyclone of flame, the all-consuming, all-destroying pillar of oxidation; nor did he feel the giant vacuum that tore people's breath out of their lungs, that sucked their very bodies into the v...

• Word Count: 1071
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five he presents the Tralfamadorians as an influence on Billy for the belief of the idea that fate and free will doesn't exist but the existence of the Tralfamadorians is questionable, ... " describes death from a huge bombing to a dead champagne. This shows that death is an insignificant piece of life to Billy. On the topic of death another black humor added by Kurt Vonnegut is this. "A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot ... ...

• Word Count: 853
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The pacifist author Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five in the late 1960's as the Vietnam War was ending. He used his own military experience from World War II to write this particular book. The main character is Billy Pilgrim who is actually Kurt Vonnegut himself. Vonnegut, like Billy Pilgrim, emerged from a meat locker beneath a slaughterhouse into the moonscape of burned-out Dresden. His surviving captors put ... of Kilgore Trout. Billy's mother visits him, and he covers his head with a blanket. Back in Germany, Edgar Derby keeps watch over Billy's sickbed. Billy remembers Derby's de...

• Word Count: 5323
• Approx Pages: 21
• Grade Level: High School

... as time has passed. Although the real controversy lies in its use for essays and assignments by students, its use in fiction is equally as important; specifically, the use of alternative discourse in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five. Slaughterhouse Five is by no means written in a traditional way. There are multiple aspects of Vonnegut's novel that would fall under the category of "alternative discourse." I think that "Time Magazine's" description ... of Vonnegut's writing style is most excellent when they say that "Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compo...

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

... vision of time and travel reveals his philosophical view toward free will. Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut argues that the loss of free will is affected by a parallel of controllable and uncontrollable events that occur in the life of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut argues that Billy's loss of free will results from his experiences in life, specifically, his childhood, marriage, and participation in war. The ... lack of resolve when faced with the primary decisions he must make. He seems to always be the passive receiver of various actions rather than the aggressi...

• Word Count: 971
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut I.Character List Billy Pilgrim - The main character of the novel. A weak soldier in World War II, Billy learns how to time travel, to the ... at Billy's eighteenth anniversary party, and on the plane that crashes, where they die. This quartet brings some horrid memories back to Billy. II. Conflict In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim is both the protagonist and antagonist because of his internal struggle. He is too weak to control his own life. He lets what he believes ... World War II, Germany, and the fictional Trafalmador. V. Plot Summary Addressed as...

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

Reading Reaction to Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five sounded like a little above average book in the beginning. I was actually quite pleased that we were required to read it, because I would have probably of not made the right choice and have chosen it. I found it quite amusing, to be following a character named Billy Pilgrim who is spastic through time, and who was once abducted by aliens, called Traflamadorians ... . The spastic changes of the time of where the story takes place is confusing but amusing, however, I am grateful that Kurt Vonnegut still left a main stor...

• Word Count: 290
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut appears to be a simplistic story of a man's experiences in World War II. To many people a may be just that. When the plot is looked at closer and the word choice ... " is a phrase used throughout the entire book many times. This phrase shows up whenever the character Billy Pilgrim encounters death. He is basically saying that death is no big deal. Vonnegut even uses the phrase "so it goes" in the first chapter to describe himself as a "pillar of salt"(22). He calls the book a failure, this helps to support the ... fact that war is always a failure and that...

• Word Count: 679
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... kids. The men could not think of any particularly good memories or stories, and the narrator noticed that Mary, Bernard's wife (to whom Slaughterhouse Five is dedicated), seemed very angry about something. Finally, she confronted him: the narrator and Bernard were just babies when they fought. Mary was ... was written by a pillar of salt. He gives us the first line and the last, and the central story of the novel is ready to begin. MY COMMENTS: I've read several Kurt Vonnegut books in the past, including this one. It has been a couple of years since I first read Slaughterhouse Five, and ...

• Word Count: 7795
• Approx Pages: 31
• Grade Level: High School

Slaughterhouse Five is the story of a small, timid man named Billy Pilgrim. Billy attended optometry school before being drafted into the United States army during the second world war. The book illustrates his inglorious experiences in Germany, particularly those in the once beautiful city of Dresden. The author, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote this book in a non-sequential manner. That is to say, there is ... no plot or chronological succession to this story. Every page in the book can bring you to a different time or circumstance in Billy's life. Vonnegut uses extensive irony, imagery, personificati...

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

... He believes he can time travel and sees how events will be played out and how he will die. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut portrays how events shape a person's mindset by exploring the past, imaginary, and current world of the life of Billy Pilgrim. The past life of Billy Pilgrim set up ... terrified, because his father had said Billy was going to learn to swim by the method of sink-or-swim. His father was going to throw Billy into the deep end, and Billy was going to damn well swim " (Vonnegut 55). The reader learns that Billy's childhood life is filled with abuse ... alo...

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

Slaughterhouse-five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is written in a non-linear style. The form is circular, because and the story seems to be cycle, rather than a sequence of events. This cycle lacks a beginning, climax, or end, and shows Vonnegut's rejection of the "grid-like outline of the story" (McGinnis 1). This style of writing emphasizes the themes of the novel, which are time and death. By writing a novel ... to that incident. In fact, more emphasis is put on Billy's time travel than on the bombing. "By transporting his hero to Tralfamadore, Vonnegut is able to introduce the Tralfamad...

• Word Count: 781
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... social laws. When reading Slaughterhouse-Five it is extremely noticeable that Kurt Vonnegut attempts to open your mind beyond the limits that society established once as untouchables. As a beginning, for Vonnegut "most human behavior, no matter how ghastly or ludicrous or glorious or whatever, is innocent," , ... whose existence is doubtful. The sarcasm and careless for things that Billy Pilgrim shows in Slaughterhouse-Five reflects Vonnegut's careless for everything since human is innocent. What could be important in a world controlled by naive humans who live in a false atmosphere? A...

• Word Count: 627
• Approx Pages: 3

Kurt Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five; His uncontrollable time traveling takes Billy back to his experiences in World War II and on the planet which is called Traflamadore. Throughout this novel Vonnegut blatantly disobeys the conventional rules of storytelling. He does this after trying multiple times to ... He wants to tell the world what really happened, but the only way he can make sense of this terrible event in his life is by inserting these eccentric elements. Due to Billy Pilgrim's uncontrollable time-traveling, chronology is almost nonexistent. A reader...

• Word Count: 990
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Destructiveness of War Slaughterhouse-Five was written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in 1953. Whether the book is an antiwar novel or a science fiction novel is ambiguous, but after writing this book, Vonnegut insists that it was a failure. Failure it is not according to many critics. Rather than just writing an anti-war/science fiction novel, Vonnegut wrote a tale of the trials and ... from the complete and utter destruction of Dresden during World War II. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut develops the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim along with utilizing science fiction and satire to demonstrate the ...

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

... Kurt Vonnegut's literary masterpiece, "Slaughterhouse Five," we're told that the all the events of the story are true, more or less, and that Vonnegut experienced the Dresden bombings firsthand. The jumbled narrative structure is Vonnegut's way of telling his story of Dresden. The setting of Slaughterhouse-Five is wide-ranged, each place having a significant effect on Vonnegut's ... seems a normal life. Germany is another important setting in the book, especially the city of Dresden. During the war Billy pilgrim is captured by the Germans and is held as a prisoner of war in Dresden. In G...

• Word Count: 521
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Is the Future Known? (Revision) The book Slaughterhouse-Five is an effort by the author Kurt Vonnegut to try to deglamorize war. He tried to tell people that World War II was not a battle of heroic men fighting heroic men but instead young boys fighting other young ... of the Rocky Mountains. All time is time it does not change. It does not lend its self to warning or explanation. It simply is. Take it moment by moment." (86) Vonnegut wrote the book Slaughterhouse-Five as if it was written for a Trafamadorian. The importance is not put on the middle or the end but in "The depths of many marv...

• Word Count: 1091
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The novel Slaughterhouse Five is written by Kurt Vonnegut. Who tells a mixed up story of a man named Billy and his life traveling through time. In this novel I find that the theme of the book is the significance of fate in life. Vonnegut shows that fate exists; and that its up to the ... some other Americans, and a few German guards hide in the basement of Slaughterhouse Five during the bombing and manage to escape unharmed. Another important setting in the book is the planet of Tralfamadore, where Billy is taken by aliens. There he is held captive and displayed in a zoo, along with ... his...

• Word Count: 803
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

What are Tralfamadorians? The Tralfamadorians are the so-called "aliens" who kidnapped Mr. Billy Pilgrim. These creatures had a great impact on Pilgrim's life, changing his views of the world and how time is perceived. They have demonstrated their 4D sight by this picturesque: A guy walking with a tunnel in front of him. He can not see anything besides what is there; nothing more, nothing less. Through the Tralfamadorians, He sees another world, another life. He acknowledges the system in which they work. Through his writing style, Kurt Vonnegut continues to skip between past and future. This...

• Word Count: 577
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Author Kurt Vonnegut was very fortunate to have the bulk of his writing years occur during a time in history in which he wrote Slaughter House Five. If this book were written in present day, I fear it would be about as broadly circulated as a Kilgore Trout novel. Slaughter House Five is a ... time of its publication, a cathartic novel for those veterans suffering from leftover emotional scars received after serving their country some 20 years earlier. Vonnegut was asked by an old war buddy's wife not to glamorize war (pgs. 14-15), which he successfully complied with. Throw in a chronologicall...

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

The firebombing on Dresden was one of the worst attacks during World War II. Billy Pilgrim, the main character in Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, experiences this firebombing first hand. Billy was my favorite character in the story because everything abnormal happened to him yet he seemed so innocent. Billy was truly my favorite character ... 's life was almost perfect there much unlike on earth. This part of the story broke away in a totally different direction than the war. Vonnegut could have written a whole story just about Billy's experiences on Tralfamadore. In my opinion, Vonnegu...

• Word Count: 471
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School