Night And Slaughterhouse Five Themes

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FIND WORDS TO REPLACE ‘HOLOCAUST’ AND ‘HORRIFIC’
Central Theme: Traumatic events in your life can haunt you.

Eunji Kwon
Brown Class
Night & Slaughterhouse-Five Essay

‘Post-traumatic stress disorder starts out with nightmares, flashbacks and actually reliving the event. And this happens over and over and over and over in your mind. If you let it go on, it can become chronic and become hard if not impossible to treat.’ This is a quote by Dale Archer, a famous psychiatrist, and the quote explains the central theme of Night and Slaughterhouse-Five; Traumatic events in your life can haunt you. MORE EXPLAINATION

In the book Night, Elie was thinking to himself, reminding him about the painful and atrocious experience he had to go through while in the Auschwitz concentration camp. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed…Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams into ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.” (Wiesel 34) He repeats “Never shall I forget…” over and over again before stating each reason because it is true. He will never forget that night. He is reflecting upon his first night in the concentration camp, and its lasting effect in life. The images are permanently burned into his brain and they haunt him. He also uses this repetition to add emphasis to the statements. It seems like he is saying it to himself in almost a crazed manner, I’ll never forget, I’ll never forget, I’ll never forget. This part of the book is a turning point. It is Elie reflecting on what he saw and realizing that he is no longer safe. In conclusion, the horrific imag...

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...ing about the night Dresden was bombed. He and the other guards were all in the slaughterhouse, when the bomb was dropped. He described that Dresden was one big flame, and the one flame ate everything organic, and everything that would burn. “The sky was black with smoke. The sun was an angry little pinhead. Dresden was like a moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead.” (Vonnegut 178). Dresden was untouched by war before the bombing, with factories, industries, and recreational facilities that were operating perfectly. After the bombing, nothing was left, everyone in the beautiful city of Dresden were dead. Billy was horrified about the fact that the AMERICANS??? Dropped the bomb, killing thousands of innocent people who has nothing to do with the war, including women and children. MORE EVIDENCE & CONCLUSION

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