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 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 ... ...

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• 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

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
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• 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...

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• 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...

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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...

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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
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• Grade Level: High School

... 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
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• 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
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• 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...

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• 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...

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• 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
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• Grade Level: High School

Kurt Vonnegut Junior served in World War two. His experiences there allowed him to write the novel Slaughter-House Five. In the book he serves as the narrator, observing, not only the calamities of those who held the status of prisoners of war, but the life of Billy Pilgrim in particular. Pilgrim's life is hard to keep up with, for in it are many journeys. Through these journeys he deals with issues of free-will, war, and innocence and ignorance. His life was multi-dimensional, as the insignificance of time played a major role. The Tralfmadorians can be correlated to this insignificance of ti...

• Word Count: 828
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The novel, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, follows the life of Billy Pilgrim. February 13, 1945 was when the German city of Dresden was bombed, but Billy survived the awful experience. He instinctively feels ... world where life and death are meaningless and feelings of guilt disappear. This alien world is called Tralfamador and it provides Billy with an escape. After being abducted by the aliens, he learns that life is made up of moments, but once they are over they are not gone forever, and like the Traflamadorians he too can ... do."(76) He believes the moment is established and, ha...

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• Grade Level: High School

... if that's what you mean.'-). In conclusion, my opinion is that Kurt Vonnegut really expressed his desolation in really original ways and with lots of variety in style, structure, irony, death symbols and other kind of literature form. I believe that Slaughterhouse Five has made Vonnegut a cultural hero among American students who by reading the book were challenged to question the patriotic view that, overall ... is shown in the book. Kurt Vonnegut is very simple, so he can convey his feelings about the character immediately without having to list every ... is also a very complex novel...

• Word Count: 1047
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate