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Figurative language in a literary work
Essay for figurative language
Critical analysis of slaughterhouse 5
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In this essay I will be stylistically analysing an extract from Chapter 3 of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel; Slaughterhouse Five. I am particularly interested in the effects different perspectives have throughout my extract, as well as the effects of the narrative structure and if it conforms or diverges from the typical models of narrative structure. I am also going to be analysing the characterisation of different figures in my extract and the impressions these give on the characters. I will also be looking at how dialogue is represented and the overall effects of different devices. I am expecting to find that Vonnegut uses a mixture of different perspectives throughout which may be difficult to extract from each other. I also expect to find that Vonnegut generally complies with the usual narrative structure, however I would not be surprised to find some divergence.
Firstly I will discuss the representation of dialogue in my extract. The only two people to engage in any conversation are Wild Bob and Billy. When the arguably mentally as well as physically unstable Wild Bob first speaks, he speaks directly to Billy. ‘You one of my boys?’ (Vonnegut 1969: 55). However, rather than replying; Billy stays silent. ‘Billy didn’t reply.’ (Vonnegut 1969: 55). This could be viewed as Billy flouting Grice’s maxim of quantity as he is not providing the right amount of information Wild Bob is looking for; he is withholding participation in the conversation. This unwillingness to participate suggests that Billy may not know the answer or is not confident enough to answer the posed question. This is reiterated when we are told ‘The question made no sense’ (Vonnegut 1969: 55) This withholding of participation results in a pause causing Wild Bob to reph...
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...aracter wishes to distance themselves from the situation. The use of first person however, contradicts this idea and shows that the character is definitely cemented in the story. Farrell (2009: 352) explains that this method of inserting biography into perhaps prevents readers from easily dismissing the events Vonnegut describes. The first person narrative therefore reminds the reader that the events were in fact reality and suggests the fiction has an intimate connection with the narrators own life.
Works Cited
Farrell, S. (2009) ‘Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut’, Critical Companions Series, New York, Infobase Publishing
Tooan, J.M. (2001) ‘Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction’, illustrated, reprint, revised, The Interface Series, London, England, Psychology Press
Vonnegut, K. (1969) Slaughterhouse-Five, Vintage Edition, London, England: Vintage
The whole book is written as a first person narrative except for one short part that Rahim Khan is narrating. The book is told in first person by the main character Amir. The example shows that the story is told in first person because the author uses the word “I” and explains what Amir is thinking in his own mind which can only be done in first person narrative.
“How nice – to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive” (Vonnegut 50). In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut introduces the genuine danger war implements on the innocent minds of soldiers by introducing Billy Pilgrim as a prisoner and Dresden bombing survivor. Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war novel appropriates around a science fiction theme where Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck” in time. This allows Billy to experience his life disorderly.
War novels often depict a war hero facing off against an enemy, with a winner on the other side. However, Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five takes an opposite approach to the telling of a war story. The narrator uses the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, to display his own anti-war sentiment. Vonnegut’s style of writing as well as his characters help to portray the effect of war on individuals and society as a whole.
By looking at Billy’s condition during the war, we can see that the war was not as glorious as the countries wanted you to think which at the time was not obvious. This adds a critical and significant point of view on the war to Vonnegut’s anti-war book. During WWII, the fighting countries didn’t want to show how terrible war really was, instead they showed images of patriotic men fighting in the war. In reality, these “men” were just kids out of high school and some from college, not ready to fight battles in a war. Vonnegut tries to show this in his book by inserting passages throughout Slaughter House Five, to help explain this to his readers. By describing Billy’s poor body structure and inadequate clothing and tools, one can clearly see
Meeter, Glenn. "Vonnegut's Formal and Moral Otherworldliness: Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five," in Jerome Klinkowitz & John Somer (eds.), The Vonnegut Statement. USA: Delacourte Press/ Seymour Lawrence, 1973, 204-220.
What is war? Is war a place to kill? Or is it a place where something more than just killing happens? War, as defined by the Merriam Webster is “a state or period of usually open and declared fighting between states or nations.” War, can also be viewed with romantic ideals where heroes and legends are born. Even the most intelligent of us hold some rather naïve notions of war. Upon reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, intelligent readers have been divested of any romantic notions regarding war they may have harboured.
Reed argues that the fantasy and science fiction of Slaughterhouse-Five are ways of dealing with reality (777). The aliens offer Billy a unique perspective on free will. They say that humans are the only species to believe in free will. They are subtly telling Billy that there is no such thing as free will and that individuals have no control over the events in their lives (Cox). These aliens explain to Billy that moments happen as they are meant to happen. When Billy asks the aliens why they chose to abduct him, the aliens tell him, “Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why” (Vonnegut 77). This view of life helps Billy to have a new understanding of the death and destruction he sees during the war. Since people do not choose to kill but are destined to do so, Billy is able to reconcile the cruelty he has seen. Understanding this fact helps Billy to come to terms with the atrocities he
Vonnegut's writing style throughout the novel is very flip, light, and sarcastic. The narrator's observations and the events occurring during the novel reflect a dark view of humanity which can only be mocked by humor. At the beginning of the novel the narrator is researching for a book he is writing. The book was to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the lives of the people who created the bomb. The narrator travels through the plot of the story, with characters flying in and out, in almost a daze. He is involved in events which are helplessly beyond his control, but which are inevitably leading to a destination at the end.
Baruch Spinoza once said “Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves free, simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” He compared free-will with destiny and ended up that what we live and what we think are all results of our destiny; and the concept of the free-will as humanity know is just the awareness of the situation. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores this struggle between free-will and destiny, and illustrates the idea of time in order to demonstrate that there is no free-will in war; it is just destiny. Vonnegut conveys this through irony, symbolism and satire.
In Pat Conroy’s, The Lords of Disciple, first person narration is used to develop the story. Seth Reilly, a writer and fiction author, talks about what first person narration is. Reilly states in his article for aspiring novelists, “First-person perspective is writing from the point of view of your narrator, putting across the world as they see it” (Reilly). While first person narration puts the reader in the narrator’s head, this point of view has multiple advantages and disadvantages. When talking about the advantages of first person narration Reilly states, “first person can effectively communicate how each moment feels; delivering sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, all through the prism of your narrator” (Reilly). This is one of the
Slaughterhouse-Five is a story of Billy Pilgrim 's capture by the Nazi Germans during the last years of World War II. Throughout the narrative, excerpts of Billy’s life are portrayed from his pre-war self to his post-war insanity. Billy is able to move both forward and backwards through his life in a random cycle of events. Living the dull life of a 1950s optometrist in Ilium, New York, he is the lover of a provocative woman on the planet Tralfamadore, and simultaneously an American prisoner of war in Nazi Germany. While I agree with Christopher Lehmann-Haupt that Slaughterhouse-Five effectively combines fact and fiction, I argue that the book is more centralized around coping.
Diction plays a critical role in the development of the tone in a story. The type of words the author uses directly leads to the tone of the entire literary work. If ...
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl uses diction, details, and syntax to emphasize the matter-of-fact tone that is consistent throughout the entire story. Diction is a key element of tone that conveys this matter-of-fact tone. For example, Mary Maloney says to herself after killing her husband, “All right… So I’ve killed him” (Dahl 320). This sentence is lacking emotion. It states a pure fact, without going into further detail and captures a turning point in Mary Maloney’s way of thinking. By telling herself “all right,” Mary distances herself from the murder. She is detached from her own story and does not reveal any qualms about murdering her own husband. Similarly, Dahl uses the next sentence to describe Mary’s thoughts by explaining,
Reed, Peter J. and Marc Leeds eds. The Vonnegut Chronicles: Interviews and Essays. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.