Slaughterhouse 5 by, Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 is the life story of Billy Pilgrim, a character which by himself is not so unusual but the events of his life and how he experiences them are rather extraordinary. As readers, we witness his time as a prisoner of war in Dresden during World War II, his time on the planet of Tralfamadore after being held captive by its alien inhabitants and his life as an average American citizen. Billy experiences the events of his life in a sequence that is “unstuck in time” meaning they don’t happen chronologically. Just like Billy, the readers are consistently tossed back and forth from the wretched conditions of the abandoned Slaughterhouse 5 where he was held prisoner, to the idealistic conditions that exist on Trafalmadore, to the mundane, everyday life of small town America. Billy’s unassuming and fatalistic character makes it easy for the reader to be accepting of the odd way in which Billy experiences life, as a pilgrim through time. Constantly he is put in situations that he never sought out, yet he confronts these challenges with a dignity that is natural due to the simplicity of his character. Vonnegut has crafted a powerful novel reflecting three states of living: miserable, tolerable and idyllic through the three settings of Slaughterhouse 5, Illium New York and Trafalmadore (respectively). All three states of living complement each other and blend well together in the novel resulting in a beautifully tragic yet optimistic work. The book leads many of us to the same conclusion about our own non-fictional lives.
Eliz
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