Slaughterhouse Five

Research Paper

      on Kurt Vonnegut’s

      “Slaughterhouse Five”

      by

      Stephanie Gill
      Outline

  I.   Introduction and Name

  a) “Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade (1969)”

  b)   Most famous work about the bombing of Dresden

  c) “Vonnegut’s telegraphic, schizophrenic” style

  II. Background

  a)   Vonnegut joined the Army

  b)   Vonnegut’s capture

  c)   Vonnegut’s experiences in Dresden

III. Plot Summary

  a)   Idea of the book

  b) Dedication of the book

  c) Billy Pilgrim as main character

  IV. Analysis

  a)   Glorification and romanticization

  b)   Largely autobiographical

  c)   Composition

  d) Views

  V.   Adaptation

  a)   Turning novel into a film

  b)   Theatrical adaptation

  c)   Operatic adaptation

  VI.   Conclusion

  a)   Public and social significance

  b)   Literary value

  c)   Short summary of novel

  d)   Young American lives

“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.
      After the bombing of the port Pearl Harbor, Kurt Vonnegut, voluntarily joined the U.S. armed forces and participated in World War II.   In 1944 he was captured during the Ardennes counter-offensive operation of the German troops and was sent to Dresden, where he and other prisoners worked at a factory that produced malt syrup with vitamins for pregnant women. And it was Dresden, where Vonnegut was destined to obtain his most terrible war experience.
      On the 13th and 14th of February 1945, he witnessed... [continues]

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