Slaughterhouse Five Comparison - 1717 Words

The book Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is an anti-war book about Vonnegut’s exposure to the vivid events that unfolded during his time at the slaughterhouse in Dresden, Germany and how it affected him. The story is told by Vonnegut through the perspective of the main protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. Billy was a survivor from WWII and the Dresden bombing, but after returning he claims to have traveled through time to explicit memories from life and had been abducted by Tralfamadorians (aliens). However, in the film Slaughterhouse-Five, directed by George Roy Hill, viewers see slight changes to the storyline. Viewers notice that in the opening scene that Vonnegut’s friend Bernard O’Hare and his wife, Mary O’Hare, are never†¦show more content†¦During his stay at mental hospital he would bed next to a former infantry captain, Eliot Rosewater, where Rosewater would introduce him to the science novelist Kilgore Trout. Through the stories by Trout, Billy read about aliens and time traveling. From these ideas, influenced by Trout, Billy was able to make up his own stories and correlate them to his personal war experiences. One of the more obvious and clear signs that Billy has gone insane is his claim to be have been kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings known as Tralfamadorians. Billy claims to have been taken by these beings and taken to Tralfamadore, where he spends eternity with Montana Wildhack, a famous â€Å"hollywood† actress. Also, from the film version of the story Wildhack’s image makes multiple appearances and every time Billy glances at her image he stares in awe. Taking this into consideration, it is important to note the irony- that he just happened to be kidnapped with his celebrity-crush by the Tralfamadorians. To further prove that Billy made up the story about the aliens, viewers must evaluate how he never mentions how he was captured, or how he managed to escape from Tralfamadore. Instead, Billy magically returns to Earth and then rambles on about the culture and philosophy shown on Tralfamadore. The way of life for the Tralfamadorians was stated by one of the beings wh ich it said, â€Å"I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of theShow MoreRelatedCoping with War: A Comparison Between Slaughterhouse Five and A Farewell to Arms1630 Words   |  7 Pagesnecessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. (Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference) War is a gruesome and tragic thing and affects people differently. Both Vonnegut and Hemmingway discus this idea in their novels A Farewell to Arms and Slaughterhouse Five. Both of the novels deal not only with war stories but other genres, be it a science fiction story in Vonnegut’s case or a love story in Hemingway’s. Despite all the similarities there are also very big differences in the depiction of war andRead More Slaughterhouse-Five Essay: Three Themes of Slaughterhouse-Five945 Words   |  4 Pages The Three Themes of Slaughterhouse-Five nbsp; Kurt Vonnegut did a great job in writing an irresistible reading novel in which one is not permitted to laugh, and yet still be a sad book without tears. Slaughterhouse-five was copyrighted in 1969 and is a book about the 1945 firebombing in Dresden which had killed 135,000 people. 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Death is the central point to which all action in the book connects. The story is primarily about the death of 135,000 German civilians in the bombing of Dresden narrated by Billy Pilgrim, a man who experiences death fromRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five: A Warning Against War Essay1716 Words   |  7 PagesKurt Vonneguts novel Slaughterhouse-Five; or The Childrens Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is, as suggested by the title, a novel describing a crusade that stretches beyond the faint boundaries of fiction and crosses over into the depths of defogged reality. This satirical, anti-war piece of literature aims to expose, broadcast and even taunt human ideals that support war and challenge them in light of their folly. However, the reality of war, the destruction, affliction an d trauma it encompassesRead More The Thought-experiments in Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Five or the Childrens Crusade: A Duty Da3375 Words   |  14 PagesThe Thought-experiments in Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Five or the Childrens Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death In 1945 Kurt Vonnegut witnessed a horrific series of bombings that led to the destruction of the German city of Dresden, where he was taken as a prisoner of war. The controversial fire-storm raid, carried out by bombers of the Royal Air Force and US Air Force, took casualties of up to a quarter million people (Klinkowitz x-xi). As a prisoner of war, Vonnegut was forced to participateRead MoreAnalysis Of The Limerence Of Martha 1170 Words   |  5 Pagesperson. They are not the same in who they are but what they represent. They know tragedy, loyalty, and. This comparison between two characters is also common amongst many previous novels, novellas, and short stories. A foil is defined as, by Literary Devices, â€Å"qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character,† but it can also be used as comparisons. A few comparisons, from William Shakespeare, are Macbeth and Banquo in the play The Tragedy of Macbeth and Laertes, Claudius, and