Preview

Slaughter house 5

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1144 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Slaughter house 5
Jack Gunderson
English 121
Formal Slaughter House Five Paper

Distress
Post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is an affliction from which many war veterans suffer while trying to maintain their normal daily lives. Although anyone can get post-traumatic stress disorder, it is most common among war veterans because of the extremely distressing and gruesome events that they endure while serving active duty in wartime. In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, the author, Kurt Vonnegut, depicts the main character Billy Pilgrim with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after fighting in World War II. Although he is never officially diagnosed, it seems impossible to deny that Billy suffers from PTSD. The foremost theme of the novel is the immense impact that war has on its participants and the lingering effects of that experience after they return from combat. A shockingly large number of soldiers suffer from PTSD after serving their country in a war time capacity. The Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD estimates that 1 in 20 of the nation's 2.5 million surviving World War II vets suffers from the disorder. Some of the symptoms experienced from post-traumatic stress disorder include troubling thoughts, flashback episodes, dreams, vivid illusions, hallucinations and disturbing recollections.
Witnessing a traumatic event can be devastating, and the impact of that experience can result in the destruction of one’s peace of mind. Billy’s intense experiences throughout the war have a profound effect on his mental state. After escaping the fire bombing of Dresden, Billy experiences several signs of post-traumatic stress disorder including erratic sleep patterns and irrepressible sobbing. Because of his extreme anxiety, he checks himself into a mental hospital for veterans in the hopes of calming his mind and helping himself return to normalcy. Inside the hospital, the horrifying effects of war on one’s mental state is obvious, and it is very

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    History 137

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is a well-known fact that every soldier that goes into combat takes the risk of losing his life. But what is not known, perhaps from repression of the thought or ignorance, is that it is not just a risk, but a guarantee that every soldier will lose his mind. Wounds can heal but horrific memories of the brutality of war will leave psychological scars will remain with the survivors. The movie, “The Hurt Locker” provoked me to think differently about the war in Iraq because I witnessed the emotional and psychological effects it had on the characters. Specifically in the scene when William James, the main character, thought that the body he had found with a bomb in it was a little boy he knew named Beckham. He lost his mind and threatened a merchant, making him drive James to Beckham’s murderer despite the fact that the man did not know. James wandered around aimlessly and recklessly that night only to find out later that Beckham was still alive.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Post-traumatic stress disorder is a term that many people are familiar with. We hear this on the news or read about it in the newspaper from time to time. Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short is often included in conversations discussing people who have survived some sort of life threatening danger or trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder causes its victims to feel frightened, worried and stressed in normal situations in which an unaffected person would feel comfortable. Symptoms of PTSD fall into three main categories which are reliving, avoidance and arousal. An example of reliving would be described as having it disturb your day to day activity. Avoidance would be described as being emotionally numb or feeling as though you don’t care about anything and feeling detached or showing less of your moods. Arousal would be described as difficulty concentrating or being startled easily. Being hyper vigilant, feeling irritable or having an outburst of anger. There are many victims of this disorder but the focus in the past few years has seem be on war veterans and has been the cause of much study.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes about World War ||. While writing about the reality of war, Vonnegut also writes about Billy Pilgrim's life both before and after the war, and from his travels to the planet Tralfamadore. Billy is able to move both forwards and backwards through his lifetime in an unpredictable cycle of events. Since Slaughterhouse-Five's central topic is the horror of the Dresden bombing, Billy comes across many questions about the meanings of life and death. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut uses irony and understatement to transfer the message that events in life are inevitable. These events may be negative, but it is important to focus on the positive memories instead.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Horace Whaley Causes

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to statistics it is estimated that one in twenty of the surviving World War II veterans suffer from some level of post-traumatic stress disorder. Also known as PTSD, it occurs when one experiences a tragic, petrifying moment. War veterans suffer from this condition all the time. There are many ways to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, but not to completely get rid of it. Some treatments consist of medication, stress management classes, as well as different therapies. In war, you see and live through traumatic events. You foresee individuals that get there arm or legs blown off, on top of ones that lose their lives. Gunshots and explosions are implanted in your brain; there is no way to forget.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    This novel represents a compound documentary written on accounts of the Vietnam War. Many of the stories in this book encompass various examples of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are graphical depictions of PTSD symptoms with references to recurring nightmares, intrusive thoughts, hypersensitivity, avoidance behavior, memories, and feelings. These signs of stress disorder are evident in the author and his characters in almost all of his short stories.…

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a psychological illness in which people repeatedly remember relive, or dream about a terrible experience” (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” 710). Explanations of PTSD mainly focus on the way the mind is affected by traumatic experiences. The mind is unable to process information and emotions properly when one is faced with overwhelming trauma (Cohen Web). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder changes the body’s response to stress by affecting the stress hormones and chemicals that deliver information between the nerves (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Web). The “fight-or-flight” response is damaged in a person with PTSD. They are constantly feeling stressed or freighted even when they are no longer in danger (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Web). This disorder can led to substance or alcohol abuse, depression, and or panic attacks (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Web). Due to many soldiers developing this disorder it was formally known as battle fatigue, combat fatigue, and shell shock (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” 710).…

    • 1565 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a widespread disorder that effects a parsons psychologically, behaviorally and emotionally following an experiencing of an traumatic event such as war, rape or abuse. (Schiraldi 2009 p.3) Due the recent wars of Iraq and Afghanistan this disorder has made it’s way to the front of our society. However It is nothing new through out history PTSD has been called by different names such as “ Soldier’s heart” during the Civil war “shell shock “ in World war 1, “combat fatigue" in World war 2, and during the Vietnam war “Vietnam veteran syndrome.”( Adsit 2008 p.23) It is estimated that there over over 400.000 Vietnam war veterans who suffer form PTSD, 38 percent of Operation enduring freedom and Operation Iraq freedom who sought care received a diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder( Adsit p.23)This paper will address factors necessary to copying successfully with the disorder, current professional treatments approaches as well as spiritual applications.…

    • 2323 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slaughterhouse Five, a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut, contains numerous examples of symbolism, imagery, figurative language, tone, and theme. The story isn't very chronological, every thing happens bunched up together. There are numerous settings in the novel. A large portion of the action of the story occurs in the small town of Ilium, New York, where Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of the novel, was born. Having grown up in Ilium, he settles there after fighting in World War II. He also becomes an optometrist, marries, and raises two children in Ilium. Germany is another setting in the book, particularly the city of Dresden. During the war, Billy is sent to Dresden to do hard labor. During his stay, the city is bombed and totally destroyed. Billy, some other Americans, and a few German guards hide in the basement of Slaughterhouse Five during the bombing and manage to escape unharmed. Another setting in the book is the planet of Tralfamadore, where Billy is taken by aliens. There he is held captive and displayed in a zoo, along with his earthling mate, Montana Wildhack. Their room in the zoo is loaded with items from earth and has a dome for a roof so that the Trafalmadorians can peep on the earthlings. The settings of the book are hard to keep up with because they are constantly changing due to Billy's mind traveling capabilities. Billy's antagonist is really himself. He is too weak to control his life, instead, he allows fate to rule his existence. Although he has the ability to time travel, he does nothing to control his journeys and lives in constant dread of where he is going to find himself next. He also dwells on the horrors that he experienced in war.…

    • 1179 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slaughterhouse Five

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut shows a lot of hopelessness in showing continuous death and war. He breaks the notion that there are “good guys” and “bad guys” in war by showing that all humans have a capacity for evil. In addition, he gives us the notion that people are capable of doing incredibly evil deeds. We can see this in Lazarro when he tells a story to Billy about a time when a dog bites him. Lazarro acting in revenge sticks razor blades into a steak and feeds it to the dog, then looks on with vicious joy as the dog goes into pain, bleeding internally. Vonnegut used this character to express how wicked people can be when Lazarro says, “‘anybody asks you what the sweetest thing in life is…it’s revenge’” (177). Despite this inevitable truth of humans having an inner capacity for doing evil in this world, Vonnegut also sheds light upon humanity’s capability of good. Such as in the scene in when Billy along with ninety-nine other POWs and four German guards survive by hiding in an underground meat cellar. A blind innkeeper, who was fortunate not to have his hotel destroyed by the bombing, welcomes all the men to stay in his stable overnight, “‘Good night, Americans,’ he said in German. ‘Sleep Well.’” (232). This shows that Vonnegut projects a message that there should be a conviction of that people must treat each other well, if humankind is ever going to overcome such hard times. Hence, in this implication we know that he didn’t want to emphasize to his readers that the human race is a lost cause. That there is good in this world but it all depends on the human condition. This is in relation to the coherent biblical references Vonnegut embeds in this story where we see that Adam and Eve revolve around this idea of the human condition. This condition is of good and evil, depending on what the heart is rooted upon.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through themes such as the destructiveness of war, in contrast to the science fiction, us readers debate where Vonnegut’s aim was to make an anti-war novel. First of all, Slaughterhouse-five “contains all moments of time occurring” and in all these moments of time something is said or done to portray evidence of an anti-war novel. Throughout the novel destructiveness of war is portrayed several times, through vivid imagery of fire, asphyxiation, sickness, death, destruction, pain and many other things we question why Vonnegut would imply something that he denies. Starting with the firebombing in Dresden we are illustrated the pain of the soldiers and the destruction of the place. Moreover, Billy’s speech end very violently as well as he is shot for something that he…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    By definition, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is “a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.” Recurring symptoms often include vivid flashbacks, nightmares, and frightening thoughts. Fortunately, some PTSD cases can be settled through therapy sessions; In fact, Tim O’Brien is praised as the war stories he writes acts as a therapy for veterans who suffer from the traumatic syndrome. In an article, a veteran claims “[he] [tries] to put everything out of [his] mind” and “want[s] to forget it,” however, the stories “[O’Brien] writes, triggers memories for me” (Hacht 517). One method of therapy for suffering veterans include the act of intentionally triggering the soldiers’ memories from the war in order to prevent them from repeatedly flashing back in their minds.…

    • 1709 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Slaughterhouse Five

    • 3281 Words
    • 14 Pages

    “Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade” (1969) is one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous autobiographical works about the bombing of Dresden during World War II. Kurt Vonnegut was an American writer, satirist and painter who was honored to be called “a writer of New York” in 2001-2003. The novel is written in the so-called “Vonnegut’s” “telegraphic, schizophrenic” style. It combines a strong narrative plot and philosophy, science fiction and the grotesque, burlesque and lampoon.…

    • 3281 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut expresses how war is a never-ending cycle of violence and death. Billy Pilgrim is the main character in the book in which the reader experiences, with Billy, about his past, present, and future as the story goes. Vonnegut explore the effects of war on the individual in fictionalized accounts of their war experiences in order to move beyond war, violence, mythology, and platitude.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Septimus Death

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages

    War is hell. There is no other human event in which there is bloodshed even comparable to that of war. Murder, mass graves, raping, razing, looting and torture are all gears in the war machine. Unfortunately, soldiers are the engine. Soldiers who have morals, families and consciences. A soldier is trained to take orders, to obey without thought. The soldiers mind and soul, on the other hand, are not so well equipped to deal with the horrors of military combat. Even after the soldier has fired his last bullet, put away his gun and returned home, he may still be at war in his head. Shell shock is the name of the disease which is known to have stricken a plethora of WWI veterans. In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the character Septimus suffers…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    War is a very traumatic experience; soldiers are lucky to emerge alive, let alone mentally sound. In the short story, "For Esme With Love And Squalor" by JD Salanger a story is told of a man who becomes mentally ill after the war. The man, X, meets a young girl at a coffee shop and learns how mature she was and how important her watch is to her. After the war, X suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome, it was not until he receive Esme's gift that he was saved from permanent insanity.…

    • 854 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays