Essay Comparing 'Blade Runner And Slaughterhouse Five'
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five are two works that at first glance appear to offer no similarities. Slaughterhouse Five is an anti-war novel written about the Dresden bombings in World War II, whereas Blade Runner stands as an American science fiction film written in the early 80’s depicting the “cyberpunk” view of life in Los Angeles in 2019. The two settings are completely spread apart and offer no reference to the other. In addition to the diversity of setting is the gap in plot and format of the two works. However, the work of Scott and Vonnegut offer a mutual connection to answering a strong, age old question of the human mind and the value of human life. The main focus of this essay will be to
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Keally McBride is a fifteen year veteran of teaching at the college level and when preparing for her new course, Philosophy and Politics of Peace and War, she writes on her website how she included Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five in her syllabus. She believes that Vonnegut’s novel describes war in the perfect manner through the chaos of his writing. “Vonnegut refuses to tell a story that can make meaning out of war, or out of death. It is pure chance, chaos, and randomness, and even the Trafalmadorians, able to see all moments in time, do not attempt to sum up the moral or political significance of anything. Everything is, precisely as it is, in its surfaces” (7). Vonnegut offers an understanding of the chaotic nature of war through the structure of his novel. While reading Vonnegut’s novel, one can place himself in the senseless act of war. Experiencing this brings out the wisdom that such an act created by humans is against all morality that the human race is founded on, and simply makes us the same as a beast destroying innocent
Keally McBride is a fifteen year veteran of teaching at the college level and when preparing for her new course, Philosophy and Politics of Peace and War, she writes on her website how she included Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five in her syllabus. She believes that Vonnegut’s novel describes war in the perfect manner through the chaos of his writing. “Vonnegut refuses to tell a story that can make meaning out of war, or out of death. It is pure chance, chaos, and randomness, and even the Trafalmadorians, able to see all moments in time, do not attempt to sum up the moral or political significance of anything. Everything is, precisely as it is, in its surfaces” (7). Vonnegut offers an understanding of the chaotic nature of war through the structure of his novel. While reading Vonnegut’s novel, one can place himself in the senseless act of war. Experiencing this brings out the wisdom that such an act created by humans is against all morality that the human race is founded on, and simply makes us the same as a beast destroying innocent