Slaughter House Five Analysis

Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughter-house Five, wrote several novels compacted into one whole novel to convey a different perspective on a specific view controversial to many. Slaughter-house Five is metafiction that talks about Vonnegut’s experience in the war. Throughout the story, we follow Billy Pilgrim as he experienced several events in the war and ultimately the bombing of Dresden. Through several characters, dialogue and events we are presented within the novel, we get the use of several themes and motifs to further Vonnegut’s purpose. Vonnegut wanted to write an anti-war novel, mainly because of its effect on his life and his promise to his friend’s wife, Mary O’ Hare, who once found out about his outline of the war in Dresden, told him to tell the story just as it is.
The concept of children and babies fighting in a grown man’s war was first introduced by Mary O’ Hare who angrily said that the war was fought by people at the end of their childhood, those who were forced to act like men instead of babies. Vonnegut conveys her emotions, and angry through the mention of babies and children, which is even further used to convey how babies and children supports his position. In chapter 1, another mention to this theme was the title, The Children Crusades. According to the chapter, it stated, “I’ll call it “The Children’s Crusade.” she was my friend after that” (Vonnegut 19). To name a novel about war the Children Crusades shows how serious the author is to make the story viewed as a child’s play, in which he later did by his creation of the character named Billy, which will be later discussed. Before going into the analysis of these themes, babies are known for being pure, but also cruel due to their primit nature. Vonnegut showcases this with several