Critical Analysis Of Slaughterhouse Five

An Analysis of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Karol T. Bista

ENH 110
Mr. M. W. Hickman
October 12, 2015

An Analysis of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five features numerous characters, some of which are major, and others minor. Primarily, the major characters, in no particular order, starts off with Billy Pilgrim, arguably the main character and hero of the book itself. Billy Pilgrim is almost like a funny looking, ragdoll or tool-like character during the course of the book. He becomes unstuck in time, and uncontrollably is able to travel throughout time from his early years of life to his days as a prisoner of the Germans during World War II, his abduction by the Tralfamadorians, all

“You 'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you 'll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we 'll have a lot more of them. And they 'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs” (Vonnegut 14): the speaker of the occasion is Mary O’Hare, who displays her frustration to the narrator for desiring to write his book regarding war, because she believes it will glorify war, and encourage warfare, which will result in their children, the ones currently playing upstairs in the house they’re at, to participate in the wars to come, which she does not want. “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 23): the speaker of the occasion is the narrator, and the occasion is when the narrator reveals that Billy is able to travel time, so to speak; truly he does this without total control, but he is able to travel time at random times, and visit from his birth to his time during World War II, and his death. “Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren’t necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next” (Vonnegut 23): the speaker of the occasion is the narrator, and the occasion is the beginning of the second chapter when it is addressed Billy has lost control over time, but also feels phony in his own life; his lack of conviction makes him into a nontraditional