CRITICS ON SLAUGHTER HOUSE-FIVE Essay, Research Paper

Slaughter house-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut is a post modern novel,

attempting to undermine the reader’s expectations. The novel does not

have smooth transitions from one event to the next. The reason is,

because the novel reflects modern man’s life. Since the novel is not

smooth it is confusing. This is just like modern man’s life, confusing.

Another literary device is, it is difficult to follow. When the novel is

hard to read the reader cannot enjoy and understand the book. This is how

modern society is too(difficult to follow). Another literary device is

the novel’s characters lack depth. The characters need more descriptive

details. This reflects man by saying that man lacks depth and is not well

rounded. The book undermines the novel’s conventional approach. These are

some reasons for the undermining of the reader’s expectations.

The novel does not have smooth transitions from one event to the

next one. "Billy blinked in 1958, traveled in time to 1961." After a

chapter, "Billy Pilgrim nestled like a spoon with the hobo on Christmas

night, and he fell asleep, and he traveled in time to 1967. When Billy is

in 1958, he is busy talking about World War Two. Then suddenly he

travels through time to 1967 and he ends up being kidnaped by aliens from

Tralfamadore. So when the story changes, the reader’s mind has to adjust

to the changes. The events just pop up all of a sudden. Modern man always

has surprises in life that just pop up just like this novel. In life

there is usually no smooth adjustments. It is abrupt and sudden. Billy

Pilgrim(protagonist) travels through time in an awkward chronological

order. In life people do not adapt to different situations without any

problem. In this book, shifting from one situation to another is meant

to be poor.

The book is difficult to follow. It has many small stories in it.

Pilgrim is in World War Two and then he ends up being with aliens from

Tralfadamore. Some of these topics are hard to comprehend. This

symbolizes modern life since it is difficult to comprehend the

understandings of life. For example, Roland Weary is one of Billy’s war

companions. He kept beating the living daylights out of Billy. The novel

mentions that Weary treat Pilgrim like this to discipline him, but he

over does it. Is it, because Weary is a psychopath or has something

against Pilgrim or maybe even perhaps it is jealously that causes this

hostility? Questions like this left unanswered makes the reader not aware

of what is happening. Another example is, Pilgrim and his war companions

are captured by German soldiers. The soldiers are kinder to Billy than to

Weary. "Billy was helped to his feet by the lovely boy," "And the others

come forward to dust the snow off Billy" Another quote,"He tore open

Weary’s overcoat and blouse. Brass buttons flew like popcorn. The

corporal reached into Weary’s gasping bosom as though he meant to tear

out his pounding heart," Both of them are treated differently. This

makes the reader anticipate why. This is not explained in the novel. Life

is the same: there are many questions unanswered that people are curious

about. Vonnegut in this novel purposely does not describe events like

this in detail so it can reflect modern life. This is the reason for the

difficulty of understanding this novel.

Some side characters lack depth and need more description. For

instance there was a photographer present at the war. He took pictures of

Pilgrim and Weary when they were captured by the Germans. Vonnegut did

not describe anything about his past or for what company he is working

for and so on. "There was a photographer present, a German correspondent

with a Leica." That is all the author writes on him. The readers want to

know more about the characters. This help makes the story more

interesting. Since there is a lack of descriptiveness, the readers form

questions in their mind. This happens in life too. When there is not

enough information on something there is always curiosity and more

questions. Another symbolism is man is not in depth. According to a

certain interpretation of Vonnegut’s symbolism, man is not well rounded.

Man should be more involved in a variety of activities to give life more

depth and meaning. So Vonnegut wants to reflect this by giving some

characters short descriptions.

This book undermines the reader’s expectations. Vonnegut wrote

this novel in a such a way so it would break all the rules of the

conventional novel. The conventional novel has smooth transition. So to

break the rules, Vonnegut wrote this book without any smooth transition.

This book also reflects modern man’s life. Life is not smooth, it is

usually more of a bumpy ride. This novel is very complicated. The topics

that are mention are hard to understand. The readers may find the book

difficult to follow. Modern life is complicated and full of confusing

issues. Slaughter House-Five’s character’s needs more depth. More

description is necessary. Modern man needs more meaning and depth in his

life too. This book attempts to undermine the reader’s expectations

through post modernism.