Slaughter House

Dreadful Destruction of Dresden Slaughter-House-Five written by Kurt Vonnegut is a novel about a character named Billy Pilgrim, who was a Prisoner of War in WWII who fought during the bombing of Dresden in Germany. Since the war Billy has never been the same returning home. He constantly travels back in time to the memories of being in Dresden and how horrible the war was. Billy has insane time travel stories throughout the book making readers believe he is crazy. Kurt Vonnegut himself was a Prisoner of War during the bombing of Dresden and he too suffered greatly during his time. Throughout the novel the readers can make a relation to whether or not this book was based on Vonnegut’s experience in Dresden and using Billy as a character to portray his experiences. Vonnegut is the narrator of the story and tells the story as first person and third person perspectives. Vonnegut using his own experiences and stories in first person perspective in a few chapters makes us believe this book is about him. Many critics argue about this topic using evidence in the book and comparing it to his life, but we do not have a straight forward answer. His role as a narrator plays a major role because he tells the story of the memories he remembers from the bombing. It can paint a picture in the reader’s minds how insane and dreadful the bombing was. This adds mystery and questions while reading the novel and continue to flood questions whether or not Vonnegut was using Billy to explain his story. In my opinion having Vonnegut as the narrator to this novel makes me believe this book was about his life story in Dresden, but using Billy as a character portraying him. Also, it’s hard to use yourself explaining in a book all the hardships and troubles about being in war. Vonnegut has to remember all the dreadful memories that took place being in war which is why he uses Billy to explain his story. There is nothing beautiful or glorious about a massacre as Vonnegut