Slaughter House Five Final Thoughts

I don't know exactly what to make of this book. It feels weird to call it an anti-war book, because writing such a book in the world of slaughter house five would really be just an anti-glacier book. But war is still portrayed as a horrible thing in the book.

I began thinking about this, why I couldn't just label slaughter house five as an anti-war novel. And I believe it is a result of the reality of Vonnegut's writing, he writes so earnestly it is hard to see him as having a message he wants to get across that's more than just his story. If war comes off as awful its because war for him was awful not because he wants it to be awful.

It this honesty that I believe is the best aspects of Vonnegut's writing he's writing about the world not about war. This has left me dumbfounded and made Slaughter-House Five one of the most memorable books I've ever read. Everything from the humor to the imagery to the font is done flawlessly. Why he would see the book as a failure in the traditional sense is astounding to me.

But when I began thinking about why Vonnegut saw the book as a failure I began  to think I could see what he meant. We're strapped to rail car staring out a tube and Vonnegut wants to unstrap us and free our vision. But in writing Slaughter House Five I believe he came to think that there was no way off the rail car, projecting the dissapointment onto his book.

Defining Billy's World Through Tralfalmadore

The most interesting part about me to Tralfalmadore is the frame it places Billy's Narrative in. It uproots the story form Dresden constantly placing you in a planet where such a horrible event is trivialized by an alien perception of our world. Making Vonnegut's so it goes mentality much more relateable.

I would view te book as rather callous in-fact if Tralfamadore wasn't added to the story, It reinforces the smallness of humanity. Were specks of dust viewing the world through a peephole and sometimes our perception gets skewed Tralfalmadore's there to bring us back down to earth, showing us the futility of what Tralfamdore view as the pitiful squabbles that are our wars.

As to whether or not the world is real I think back to Mumbo Jumbo and Orsis and Moses. The impact they've both had on the world is very physical making their existence just as tangible as any other historical. figure. A similar occurrence is the reason for the  apparent reality with which Tralfalmadore is displayed, to Billy its real and our world seen is through Billy's eyes making Tralfalmadore tangible in the eyes of the reader.

Slaughter House Five Initial Impressions

I am really impressed by this book so far Vonnegut's Dry Humor and word-play endlessly amuses me. It's honestly one of the funnier books I've read, and he seems much more intelligent than me often leaving me to pause in between breaks simply thinking about the implications of what he just said.

I also particularly enjoy the way hes presenting the anti-war novel rather than using emotionally manipulative mean to show us the horrors of war he simply shows us war for what it really is and lets the horrors sink in this is so effective. It allows readers to come to their own conclusions but Vonnegut is able to subtly nudge them towards the ideas he wants, and sometimes not so subtlety using humor to mask the fact that he has effectively told us how he thinks and wants us to think. In particular his description of Bobby's wife the way in which he describes her is quite comical, yet allows no room for free thought you're going to come away thinking shes a a fat slob no matter what. But that idea is essential to the thought experiment that is the rest of the story, and the person bobby is.

The moment I began having such thought s was the moment when the Germans stumble across the fighting Americans in the clearing. Vonnegut immediately dispels your image of them as Nazis by humanizing the dog and eventually the rest of the squad. Moments like this are truly the strentgth in this book and I look forward to reading on