Book Analysis: Slaughterhouse Five

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Craycraft 1 Miller Craycraft Teacher Name English I Honors Summer Assignment July 20, 2015 Slaughterhouse Five Slaughterhouse Five, a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a story of Billy Pilgrim. This antiwar, science fiction novel takes place approximately between 1945-1968 in the United States. The novel primarily follows Billy Pilgrim on a journey of sometimes real life and other times post traumatic war memories of being in a meat locker in Dresden, where he narrowly escapes death. As Billy returns to his civilian life, Vonnegut writes about Billy drifting in and out of reality to fiction when Billy claims he is abducted by aliens, Tralfamadorians. Is he really abducted by aliens or is he experiencing post war traumatic syndrome? Billy insists that the Tralfamadorians take him to their home planet, talk to him about their theories on time, and then put him in a zoo with an attractive, Montana Wildhack. He thinks all of these events are true …show more content…

Vonnegut, leaves the reader to imagine if free will is a force for Billy to reckon with as he shares Billy 's life before and after his experiences of war. Even as a child, Billy was forced to reckon with freewill. Once his father let him sink into the bottom of a deep end of a pool in order to teach him how to swim. Billy prefers the bottom of the pool but, against his free will to stay there, he is rescued. Later in life, Billy is drafted into the war against his will. As a soldier in Luxembourg, Billy is a joke, lacking in training, supplies, and proper clothing as he marches the streets of Dresden. As Billy accepts the Tralfamadorian teachings, his actions indicate the futility of free will. Even if he were to train hard, wear the proper uniform, and be a good soldier, he might still die like the others in Dresden who were much better soldiers than he. However,

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