Slaughterhouse-Five

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Kurt Vonnegut 's Slaughterhouse-Five

By 1969 , American novelist Kurt Vonnegut , Jr . had already published five novels and two short story collections , of which gained commercial success or artistic acclaim . Hence , the warm reception that critics gave his novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969 ) turned it into Vonnegut 's artistic and commercial breakthrough . Critic Jerome Klinkowitz considered the novel as Vonnegut 's first bestseller (catapulting ) him to sudden national fame and (bringing his writing into serious intellectual esteem (Cox , n . pag . Some literary critics , meanwhile , interpreted

Slaughterhouse-Five as the aggregate of the all the dominant themes in his works - the licentious use of technology , the futility of human beings masquerading as God and the need for kindness and decency in an indifferent world . Almost thirty years after its first publication , the novel is still very much discussed and admired (Cox , n . pag

Many critics and scholars asserted that the major factor behind the success of Slaughterhouse-Five was that it was based mostly on Vonnegut 's personal experiences as an enlisted soldier during World War II . As a prisoner of war during the said hostility , Vonnegut was able to witness the Allied bombing of Dresden on the night of February 13 , 1945 The Dresden bombing is known as the bloodiest air strike in military history , killing around 135 ,000 people . This figure was almost twice the number of victims of the Hiroshima bombing (Cox , n . pag

However , Vonnegut 's efforts to turn Slaughterhouse-Five as a means of putting closure to his wartime experiences resulted in the novel 's short , jumbled and jangled structure (Cox , n . pag . The protagonist , Billy Pilgrim , also witnessed the Dresden bombing while he was imprisoned by the Germans during World War II . It is here that the novel 's short , jumbled and jangled structure (Cox , n . pag ) served its purpose - in to escape the horrors of war , Billy becomes unstuck in time (Cox , n . pag . and travels back to previous events in his life , such as his wedding night or when he first learned how to swim as a child . So prevalent is the concept of time travel in Slaughterhouse-Five that it was often regarded as a sign of Billy 's delusions or emotional instability (Cox , n . pag

The purpose for the inclusion of time travel in the novel is explained to the reader when aliens from the planet Tralfamadore abduct Billy on his daughter 's wedding night several years after World War II . While the Tralfamadorians held Billy captive , they explained to him that all moments , past , present , and future , always have existed , always will exist (Cox , n . pag . Simply put , past , present and future events are mere manifestations of previous occurences that were preserved in time . Even death is irrelevant to the Tralfamadorians , as they can go back to the time when their deceased loved ones were still alive (Cox , n . pag This sentiment is further elaborated in the passage below

When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse , all he thinks is that...