Kurt Vonnegut
Coming from a German background, the first thing I thought of was the name of a writer that had written one of my favorite books. I went onto the internet to try to find out if he had in fact come from the same origin as my family. This was tough at first because the only thing it revealed was that Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indiana on November 11, 1922 (Grolier Incorporated). After looking to find out where his great-grandfather came from, it revealed that Clemens Vonnegut Sr. emigrated from Germany in 1848 (Shaping the Circle). I picked writing about this writer because he has written one of the most interesting books in my mind, Slaughterhouse-Five which I will use as my topic.
In the book many different adventures take place that makes this novel have a different feel. The adventures that take place happen for a multitude of reasons. It gives this book a twist in a way that you seem to have an outside view of what is going on in the plot. Billy's memories and his stream of consciousness are used to give sensory impressions of his actions and thoughts by his time travel, as well as also provide other details in his life and World War II (Schatt 89).
Billy encounters a sleep-like state when he becomes “unstuck in time (Vonnegut 29)” and this occurs for different reasons. One of the major reasons for Billy to become “unstuck in time” is the atrocities of the Holocaust, together with the firebombing of Dresden, make for such painful memories. “Because of the shock of this event, Billy becomes a perpetual prisoner of war, returning again and again in his mind to this scene (“Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade”).” Within the book, Dresden seems to be the center of all the major action taking place. It is no wonder almost all Billy's thoughts is his remembrance of his wartime encounters during his captivation as a prisoner. Kurt Vonnegut then has Billy put into the sleep-like state in which he only remembers pieces at a time to put his mind more at ease. This method makes the story rather confusing, but puts what is going on more into perspective. It shows how a man that experienced such a catastrophe might have to deal with what he went through by his thoughts (Schatt 88-89).
The human mind is a part of the body which current science knows little about. Trigger mechanisms, and other factors within the brain are relatively unknown to current humanity. Therefore, in order to produce a diagnostic on why Billy Pilgrim became “unstuck” in time, the reader of Slaughterhouse Five must come to terms with situations concerning the experiences described in the novel. Billy Pilgrim starts out, chronologically, as a fairly basic infantryman in the United States Army during the last Nazi offensive of the war, also known as the Battle of the Bulge (Vonnegut, 32). That battle resulted in fierce fighting, and also in massacres (such as the one that occurred near Malmedy, France), and the reader may be sure that there were men who became mentally unsound due to the effects of what they experienced there. Pilgrim is taken in by a group of soldiers who have found themselves behind the Nazi lines and are required to travel, by foot, back to friendly lines (Vonnegut, 32).
“But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” (King) this quote from the letter is an example of an appeal to logic or logos. There is no question that racial injustice was most definitely taking place in Alabama, and throughout America. Dr. King uses many other examples like this one. Dr. King explains that they had no other alternatives than to demonstrate and protest against the serious injustices taking place in the United States, especially in the south. In the letter Dr. King states that the white people of Birmingham have left the African Americans with no other alternative. He also states that the city of Birmingham is one of the most segregated cities in the entire United Sta...
One of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the same author is getting to know the author as a person. People don't identify with Gregor Samsa; they identify with Kafka. Witness the love exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. It's like that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.
The book, Slaughter House-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is based on the main character named Billy Pilgrim who is a little "lost" in the head. Billy is always traveling to different parts of his life and rarely in the present state. Throughout the book Billy mainly travels back and forth to three big times in his life. In each different time period of Billy's life he is in a different place; his present state is in a town called Illium and his "travels" are to Dresden and Tralfamadore. When Billy is in Illium he is suppose to have a "normal" life; he is married, has two children, and works as an optometrist. Then Billy travels back to Dresden where he was stationed in the last years of WWII and witnessed the horrible bombing. When Billy travels to Tralfamadore he is in an "imaginary" state, everything that happens to him is more like a dream. Through Billy's travels in time he shows that he is striving to find meaning in the events that happened in his life that he is afraid to acknowledge. As Billy says himself, "All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist," (1) this just proves even further that fact that Billy cannot ever forget any event in his life.
In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, he talks about World War II and the bombing of Dresden. He writes about this historical event through the character Billy Pilgrim, Billy is drafted into the army at age twenty-one during World War II. He is captured and sent to Luxembourg and then later Dresden as a prisoner. Throughout the novel Vonnegut constantly ridiculous Billy. He describes Billy as a character that has no individualism and no choice in anything that happens in his life. Billy is used to show that everything happens because of fate. As a prisoner Billy has no control over his day to day life. While Billy is in Dresden the city is bombed, because of luck, only Billy and a few others survive the bombing in a slaughterhouse.
...ly driven by his memories; his flashbacks and dreams almost always take him back to Germany in 1944, be it in the basement during the bombing of Dresden or in a train car filled to the brim with other prisoners of war. Often, these episodes occur as a result of sensory phenomena that trigger painful memories. Take, for instance, the repeated mentions of certain colors (“ivory and blue,” “orange and black”) or smells (“mustard gas and roses”) that tend to send Billy catapulting into the past (57, 164). Another trigger for Billy includes a siren, heard outside his optometry practice in Ilium, which reminds him of the Dresden air raid alarms. The siren “scared the hell out of him” (57), and, consequently, “he was expecting World War Three at any time” (57). With stimuli that are commonly found in daily life in peacetime America, Billy was, essentially, doomed.
Kurt Vonnegut Served as a sensitive cell in the organism of American Society during the 1960's. His work alerted the public about the absurdity of modern warfare and an increasingly mechanized and impersonal society in which humans were essentially worthless and degenerated. The satirical tone and sardonic humor allowed people to read his works and laugh at their own misfortune.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written while he was “confined in the Birmingham city jail.” His letter was a direct response to the eight Alabama clergymen who insisted that King’s use of nonviolent direct action was unlawful. The clergymen questioned his method of protests even though they had similar goals as King. In his letter, King illustrates the hardships and injustices that African Americans in the United States were enduring during the mid-twentieth century; doing so allows King to justify the nonviolent actions of his fellow protestors. King uses the classical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos, along with his rhetorical situation, to support his claims about the racial discrimination and segregation in the United States.
Kurt Vonnegut is an impressive author who combines comic fiction and social satire in his novels. He often writes about the main character Kilgore Trout, who seems to be more like Vonnegut’s alter ego. He has written many books including Player Piano, Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, Galapagos, Bluebeard, and Fates Worse Than Death.
Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11, 1922. After attending Cornell University from 1941-43 Vonnegut served in World War II and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. As a prisoner of war, he survived the fire bombing of Dresden by Allied forces on 13 February, 1945 in an underground meat-storage cellar. When he emerged the next morning, Vonnegut was put to work pulling corpses from the ruins of the desolated city once known as "the Venice of the North." In one night the horrific fire-bombing of Dresden killed more people than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, more than 135,000 in all. Vonnegut's first-hand experiences of this, one of the darkest episodes in human history, would later provide the basis for his most influential work, Slaughterhouse Five (1969), though it would take him more than twenty years to come to terms with his wartime experiences and complete the novel.
Cyberbullying has become more of a problem over the past years. With technology being in such high demand and there being endless options. Students can use and abuse technology in a negative light. Since technology isn’t going anywhere cyberbullying will only worsen. The First Amendment rights along with the school’s handbook, student handbook and states policies and procedure are meant to protect students from such harm. A students’ rights and privacy must be protected with such things implemented and actions are taken cyberbullying can become
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his famous “A Letter from the Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963 while he was imprisoned in the Birmingham Jail for being involved in nonviolent protests against segregation. The letter is directed at eight white clergymen from Alabama who were very cynical and critical towards African Americans in one of their statements. Throughout the letter, King maintains an understanding yet persistent tone by arguing the points of the clergymen and providing answers to any counterarguments they may have. In the letter, King outlines the goals of his movement and says that he will fight racial inequality wherever it may be. Dr. King uses the appeal three main rhetorical devices – ethos, logos, and pathos – in order to firmly, yet politely, argue the clergymen on the injustices spoken of in their statement.
Billy Pilgrim time travels to various moments in his life at random, which suggests he has no power over his mind and the memories that haunt him. He “is spastic in time, (and) has no control over where he is going next” (Vonnegut 43), as he struggles to make sense of his past. Billy’s ability to remember events in an erratic sequence, mirrors the happenings of war. War is sudden, fast paced, and filled with unexpected twists and turns. Billy cannot forget what he experienced during his time as a soldier, and in turn his mind subconsciously imitates this hectic quality of war. This behavior proves that although the war is over, “psychologically, Billy has never fully left” (Vees-Gulani). For many soldiers, especially those who were prisoners of war (POW), it is inevitable that their mind will not be like it once was (Vees-Gulani).
Additionally, we learn that while he was recuperating, his wife died of carbon-monoxide poisoning trying to get to the hospital to see him. The entire story is basically told in Chapter 2.It is also in this chapter that Billy,"time-travels for the 1st time The series of scenes and fragmentations of Billy 's life in chapter 2 alone unnerving. Had we leaned the corse of events in a normal chronological sequence, rather than tidbit here and there, the events would have been m,ore understandable. We learn of his wife 's death in chapter 2, yet we learn the full circumstances of her death in chapter
Kurt Vonnegut’s background had an endless influence upon his writing. In his early years, Vonnegut was a private in the 106th infantry division in World War II. He and five scouts were caught behind enemy lines, and then captured. They were held POWs and were beaten on various occasions. In 1945, they witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Kept during this time in a slaughterhouse, this is part of the inspiration for Slaughterhouse-five. After being released from the Slaughterhouse, Vonnegut called Dresden “utter destruction” and “carnage unfathomable”. This distressing time in his life led to one of the many themes of Slaughterhouse-five which is that nothing good can come from war and a massacre. This theme is expressed in the story when Billy Pilgrim says “Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim ’Poo-tee-weet?’” After the bombing, the POWs had to gather the bodies for a mass grave and then all the remains were set on fire. Vonnegut and the other prisoners were only there for a few more months, until they were rescued. The lasting effect this awful war caused Vonnegut had significant affect upon his writing; on return to the U.S., he was awarded a purple heart.