Slaughterhouse Five Critical Analysis

Words: 1377
Pages: 6

Vonnegut’s style of writing by jumping around from past to present events display Billy’s erratic thought process. Billy’s unconscious mirrors that of a war, showing that he has not fully left. Although the war has ended, Billy psychologically still finds himself trapped in memories of war, and his mind mimics the hectic ways of war. For instance, when seeing a quartet who reminded him of the war, he rushed upstairs and “thought hard about the effect that quartet had on him, and then found an associated with an experience he had had long ago” (177). Billy then travels back in his mind to explain the memory. However, afterwards, instead of returning directly to present time and continuing the party, he jumps to the death of his wife. This jumbled sort of thought process and storytelling displays that Pilgrim is not all there inside. Instead, his life has begun to mirror that of war, filled with unexpected twists and turns. While the novel is a war book, most of it is set outside of wartime.Some parts are set within the warzone, but the majority is set in Billy Pilgrim’s life post-war, therefore displaying the harmful effect that war can have on a soldier even after he has removed his uniform. By doing so, Vonnegut allows the reader to identify the long-lasting effects of war …show more content…
Vonnegut chooses to instead focus on the prisoners of war, who have no control over where they are or what they do and are deprived of any sort of dignity. When Pilgrim’s troop is transferred, he is spotted by an Englishman. This man looks at Pilgrim and his state of dishevelment and says, “This isn’t a man. It’s a broken kite” (97). This metaphor comparing Pilgrim to a kite serves to exemplify the lack of control that Pilgrim has over his own life and the way that war takes away people’s control over their