Slaughterhouse-Five: Difference between revisions

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''Slaughterhouse-Five'' is [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s 1969 masterpiece about Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who witnessed the bombing of Dresden and subsequently gets kidnapped by Tralfamadorian aliens, who can see in all four dimensions and thus see all events in their lives in no particular order. Billy becomes [[Unstuck in Time]], marries a nice girl, experiences death for a while, befriends Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut's recurring [[Author Avatar]] in [[The Verse]]), and lives his life like most other ~~humans -- just~~ less chronologically. Tralfamadorians don't believe you can change anything, but that doesn't mean you can't choose to focus on a particular time, and to enjoy life the way it happens. Billy learns to accept life as well as ~~death -- if~~ something dies, then [[Arc Words|so it goes.]]

''Slaughterhouse-Five'' is [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s 1969 masterpiece about Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who witnessed the bombing of Dresden and subsequently gets kidnapped by Tralfamadorian aliens, who can see in all four dimensions and thus see all events in their lives in no particular order. Billy becomes [[Unstuck in Time]], marries a nice girl, experiences death for a while, befriends Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut's recurring [[Author Avatar]] in [[The Verse]]), and lives his life like most other humans—just less chronologically. Tralfamadorians don't believe you can change anything, but that doesn't mean you can't choose to focus on a particular time, and to enjoy life the way it happens. Billy learns to accept life as well as death—if something dies, then [[Arc Words|so it goes.]]

Why aliens, and why time travel? Because Vonnegut wanted to write about his experiences in [[World War II]], but he didn't want to write a story about [[Big Damn Heroes]]. Instead, his character is simply a meek observer: Billy gets to see the war and the world from a distance, objectively, as if through the eyes of aliens.

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It caused a bit of controversy when it came out, as people were unwilling to believe that "The Greatest Generation" during "The Good War" could do evil. But his story about the [[wikipedia:Bombing of Dresden in World War II|Bombing of Dresden in World War II]] is factual, as Vonnegut was there. Although there is a question about how many died; it is said that in the book he got the numbers wrong. Still, 135,000 civilians or 25,000 civilians, dead is dead. [[Arc Words|So it goes.]]

An intensively autobiographical novel (minus the time travel and aliens bits), ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]], or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is one of the books Vonnegut is most remembered for and contains philosophies about free will, fate, life, and death, often through the use of irony. For example, scholarly discussion usually holds that Billy and the Tralfamadorians are the examples of what is ''wrong'' and that free will, and therefore moral responsibility to try to prevent war, futile though it may seem, are the correct paths.

An intensively autobiographical novel (minus the time travel and aliens bits), '''''Slaughterhouse-Five''', or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is one of the books Vonnegut is most remembered for and contains philosophies about free will, fate, life, and death, often through the use of irony. For example, scholarly discussion usually holds that Billy and the Tralfamadorians are the examples of what is ''wrong'' and that free will, and therefore moral responsibility to try to prevent war, futile though it may seem, are the correct paths.

{{quote|It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.

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* [[Apocalypse How]]: A Class 5 on a universal scale. [[Played for Laughs]], mostly.

* [[Arc Words]]: "So it goes."

* [[Author Avatar]]: As mentioned above, Kilgore Trout is a recurring author avatar in many of Vonnegut's novels; however, because of the intense personal nature of the ~~story--Vonnegut~~ himself actually witnessed or took part in many of the book's ~~events--the~~ author himself is present as a character as well.

* [[Author Avatar]]: As mentioned above, Kilgore Trout is a recurring author avatar in many of Vonnegut's novels; however, because of the intense personal nature of the story—Vonnegut himself actually witnessed or took part in many of the book's events—the author himself is present as a character as well.

** Kilgore Trout is based on Theodore Sturgeon (he of [[Sturgeon's Law]]), a [[Real Life]] science fiction author who was a friend of Vonnegut's.

* [[Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism]]: The Tralfamadorians look like toilet plungers and have five sexes.

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** The Tralfamadorians take this attitude on a ''universal'' scale as they all know a rocket test of theirs will destroy the entire universe and don't much care. They don't care because they see no point in caring. To their senses: It will happen. It is happening. It will always happen. It can not be stopped because it has always happened.

** Edgar Derby's death is brought up before he is even named or is introduced into the story.

* [[Humans Are ~~Bastards~~]]: Averted. Billy suggests the Tralfamadorians and other aliens feel this way about humans since they have war. It is quickly explained that humans aren't alone in their ability to make war and that most aliens have no opinion one way or another about them.

* [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]: Averted. Billy suggests the Tralfamadorians and other aliens feel this way about humans since they have war. It is quickly explained that humans aren't alone in their ability to make war and that most aliens have no opinion one way or another about them.

* [[Humans Are Special]]: How much this specialness matters is arguable, but according to one Tralfamadorian, "I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe.... Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." Because of this, they're seen as [[Humans Are Morons|idiots]] by the Tralfamadorians.

* [[Long-Lost Relative]]: Although they were not aware of it, Billy and a German prison guard were distant cousins.

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* [[Oh, and X Dies]]: The narrator wastes no opportunity to remind us that Edgar Derby is going to be executed for stealing a teapot (when that finally happens, it's told in a by-the-way sentence that doesn't even rate a paragraph of its own).

** The movie makes a somewhat bigger deal about it.

** The first chapter, in which Vonnegut discusses his writing of the book, has Vonnegut toying with the idea of making Edgar Derby's death the climax of the ~~novel -- a~~ sort of appropriately retroactive [[Lampshade Hanging]].

** The first chapter, in which Vonnegut discusses his writing of the book, has Vonnegut toying with the idea of making Edgar Derby's death the climax of the novel—a sort of appropriately retroactive [[Lampshade Hanging]].

* [[Prescience Is Predictable]]: Averted. Even though the Tralfamadorians and Billy see the future and are powerless to change it, they accept it gracefully.

{{quote|Billy had a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going, even though he was unenthusiastic about living. A lot of patients who saw the prayer on Billy's wall told him that it helped them to keep going, too. It went like this: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference." Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.}}

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* [[Time Dissonance]]

* [[Title Drop]]: For both titles.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: It is mentioned in one single line near the start of the second chapter that the story is built on what Billy Pilgrim ''says'' happened to him. After that point every event is presented in a very matter-of-fact way, but the implication is that the entire book is really based on Billy's perspective, rather than that of an omniscient narrator. Billy's unreliability is never made explicit, but is hinted ~~at -- he~~'s suffered PTSD, a severe head injury, and some other characters certainly ''think'' he's unreliable...

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: It is mentioned in one single line near the start of the second chapter that the story is built on what Billy Pilgrim ''says'' happened to him. After that point every event is presented in a very matter-of-fact way, but the implication is that the entire book is really based on Billy's perspective, rather than that of an omniscient narrator. Billy's unreliability is never made explicit, but is hinted at—he's suffered PTSD, a severe head injury, and some other characters certainly ''think'' he's unreliable...

* [[Unstuck in Time]]: The [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]: There are a couple parts of the book that were based on Vonnegut's own experiences, such as the descriptions of Dresden post-bombing and Edgar Derby being executed for looting a teapot.