Dresden and the Destruction of Vonnegut's Dream

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Dresden and the Destruction of Vonnegut's Dream

The little dream Vonnegut took with him to war was not

founded on the rubble of insanity, absurdity, and irrationality

that he experienced in WWII. His dream was founded on order,

stability, and justice. It was founded on what Dresden

symbolized. And when Dresden evaporated so too did Vonnegut's

dream. (Klinkowitz 223)

Vonnegut's views on death, war, technology and human nature

were all affected by his experience in Dresden and these themes

become evident in his novels. The common thread between all of

Vonnegut's themes is war.The bombing of Dresden had a profound

impact on the life and writing of Kurt Vonnegut. "Rarely has

a single incident so dominated the work of a writer" (Goldsmith

IX). World War II shaped many of Kurt Vonnegut's philosophies

that appear in his novels, especially Slaughterhouse Five. "With

Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut was able to deal directly with his

war time nightmare" (Klinkowitz 225). In Slaughterhouse Five we

witness a moment of balance in Vonnegut's life when he finds

himself capable of dealing with the intense pain of his Dresden

experience and ready to go on with the business of living. "If

the war becomes a general metaphor for Vonnegut's vision of human

condition, Dresden becomes the symbol, the quintessence" (Reed

186). What made the Dresden bombing even more horrible to

Vonnegut was that as a prisoner, he was ironically protected from

the bombs and fire. Planes from his country did the bombing, and

he was perpetrator, observer and target all at the same time

(Goldsmith ix).

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was born on November 11, 1922 in

Indianapolis, Indiana. He later served in the US Army Infantry.

He was captured after the Battle of the Bulge and sent to Dresden

to work in a factory. After being awarded the Purple Heart in

1967, he received the Guggenheim Fellowship to research

Slaughterhouse Five.

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