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- Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim’s capture by German forces during World War II. It explores his life through a non-linear narrative. The novel is separated into episodes from his life before and after the war, as well as a science fiction interlude during which he’s transported to another planet.
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Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant during World War II , to the post-war years.
- Kurt Vonnegut
- 1969
Slaughterhouse-Five Full Book Summary. Note: Billy Pilgrim, the novel’s protagonist, has become “unstuck in time.”. He travels between periods of his life, unable to control which period he lands in. As a result, the narrative is not chronological or linear. Instead, it jumps back and forth in time and place.
- Kurt Vonnegut
- 1969
Kurt Vonnegut wishes to write a novel about the firebombing of Dresden, which he witnessed as an American POW and survived by hiding in a slaughterhouse. Vonnegut contacts his friend Bernard O’Hare, but they cannot remember much about the bombing.
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Slaughterhouse-Five, antiwar novel by Kurt Vonnegut, published in 1969. The absurdist, nonlinear work blends science fiction with historical facts, notably Vonnegut’s own experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, during the Allied firebombing of that city in early 1945. It is considered a modern-day classic.
In the novel’s opening chapter, Vonnegut mentions his time as a POW as well as his return to Dresden. He also discusses the process of writing the novel and is a minor character in the work. The next chapter introduces Billy Pilgrim, who is “unstuck in time,” moving throughout his life randomly. Told in chronological order, his story begins with his birth in 1922. Later he is studying to be an optometrist when he is drafted during World War II. He serves as a chaplain’s assistant and is at the Battle of the Bulge, where he meets Roland Weary, a sadistic soldier who saves Billy’s life on several occasions, hoping to be seen as a hero. The two are captured, and, shortly before dying from gangrene, Weary blames his demise on Billy. The latter is transported as contract labour to Dresden, where he and other POWs are kept in a slaughterhouse. He survives the firebombing at Dresden. Billy is later freed and returns to the United States, where he suffers a nervous breakdown. Following his recovery, he marries and has two children while becoming a very successful optometrist.
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Shortly after his daughter’s wedding, Billy is taken by aliens to the planet Tralfamadore and exhibited in a zoo there. During his stay on their planet, he learns that Tralfamadorians have a completely different concept of time: for them, every moment, whether in the past, present or future, has always existed, always will, and will occur over and over again. They are able to revisit any part of their lives at will, and so to them an individual’s death does not matter, as they are still alive in the past. During this time, he falls in love with another kidnapped human, an actress named Montana Wildhack, and they have a child.
One of the most important events in Billy’s life was witnessing the Allied carpet-bombing and firebombing of Dresden (which leveled the city and reportedly killed at least 25,000 civilians), and the descriptions of that horror bring home in gripping fashion Vonnegut’s eloquent antiwar message. Despite its bleak message, however, Slaughterhouse-Five...
After a devastating plane crash from which Billy emerges as one of two survivors, he declares that years ago he was abducted by aliens who took him to their planet, Tralfamadore. There, they displayed him at a zoo and mated him with another “Earthling,” the celebrity Montana Wildhack.
Slaughterhouse-Five is the name borrowed from the name of the POW camp where Kurt and his other mate prisoners were kept. The significance of carrying anti-war, science fiction connotations is autobiographical as well because it tells of the author’s own experience.
Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim’s capture by German forces during World War II. It explores his life through a non-linear narrative. The novel is separated into episodes from his life before and after the war, as well as a science fiction interlude during which he’s transported to another planet.
