Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt
Vonnegut
Vonnegut's Proposal
Kurt Vonneguts absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to
Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by
aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of
virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life,
concentrating on his (and Vonneguts) shattering experience as an
American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
Dont let the ease of reading fool you--Vonneguts isnt a conventional, or
simple, novel. He writes, There are almost no characters in this story, and
almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so
sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the
main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being
characters... Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building
where the POWs were held) is not only Vonneguts most powerful book, it
is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the
authors experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply
funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-
Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of
the absurd found in Vonneguts other works, but the books basis in rock-
hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.
Personal Review: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Things They Carried" is a plethora of experiences that leaves the
reader to truly grasp the nefariousness of war. Tim O'Brien's book is a
plane to travel readers to places and feelings that they would normally not
be capable of arriving at. Vietnam is not a place that many high school
students get the opportunity to visit, nor is war an experience that many go
through at this age. O'Brien corrects this privation by transporting readers
into the lives of fictional soldiers like Rat Kiley or Curt Lemon, neither of
which survive the horrors in Nam. Their fear becomes tangible, their fear

becomes the readers fear, their fear becomes imbued with importance as
O'Brien attempts to guide readers through his disapprobation of war.
O'Brien writes with a profundity that can only come with personal
experience, he wrote "The Things They Carried" as a memoir of his
bellicose days and to promote his anti-war sentiment. The irony in the
story lies, however, in that none of the characters are real, although certain
parts of the story may be true, O'Brien expounds the soldiers so that he
can almost control the reader's emotions. The soldiers experiences and
feelings are such that the reader can feel the gush of wind as a bullet
narrowly misses or become lugubrious at the loss of a close friend. The
readers' journey leaves them in lassitude at the effort put forth in fighting
the war alongside the soldiers.
Vietnam breathes, although some may doubt that this is possible, for
the soldiers Vietnam is a living entity. What I find truly meaningful is the
things the soldiers carried, not only did they have to carry their unit and
their equipment they had to carry fear, love, and hope. Fear that is
constantly ruminated upon only becomes heavier and O'Brien does an
excellent job of expressing this to the readers. He also shows the
unfairness in war, the men do not want to be in Vietnam, they do not want
to fight, they do not want to be so far away from home. And when the
soldiers do fight as is expected of them, they come home, but life can
never be the same after such an unmitigated experience as war. Men can
be left vacuous after a war they did not fight of their own volition, and
because the US did not win the war in Vietnam, the soldiers did not get the
respect they deserved when they returned home because the general
public blamed them for fighting the war, even though they did not want to
fight it in the first place. But, as the saying goes, it's a rich man's war and
a poor man's fight.
This book provides the impetus to make people realize the error of
war, a necessary cathartic act that could possibly make this world a better
place. I therefore can say with perfect perspicuity and aplomb that this
book deserves five stars because it is a truly heart-wrenching and
enlightening story.
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