The author even inserts himself as a character throughout key events, such as the latrine at the POW camp and digging in the corpse mines in Dresden. The insertions serve to remind the reader that though fiction, the events described in the novel ac Continue Reading...
The best evidence for this suffusion in the author's own life is in the final chapter, when the main character/author returns in full force. Traveling peacefully and happily in a plane above Berlin, during a moment he considers "one of the nicest o Continue Reading...
I enjoyed Vonnegut's commentary on the strangeness of humankind's foibles and I was not shocked by some of his matter-of-fact depictions. Indeed, when Vonnegut draws on his own real-life experiences, the novel takes on an air of authenticity. This Continue Reading...
Through his experiences and adventures, Billy becomes a symbol more than a mere character. He obviously has more insight into how things truly are, than the rest of the characters in the book. Not accidentally, Billy becomes unstuck in time precisel Continue Reading...
The failed quest of Vonnegut the character underlines another important theme of the novel -- although life may seem 'fated' as Pilgrim perceives it to be, our own perceptions affect how we see our past and reconstruct the past. Our minds are eraser Continue Reading...
Interviewer Good morning Mr. Vonnegut! First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity of having to interview you! Vonnegut Good morning to you too! It's actually my honor and pleasure to be interviewed by a popula Continue Reading...
The critic called Vonnegut "overrated at best" and goes on to say, "Like many inferior novelists, he films better than he reads" (33). On the other hand Peter Reed talks of the novel's depiction of many "grim" and "downright painful" scenes sliced Continue Reading...
Reason tells him that there must be something else, still to come, while he is fighting to stay alive and keep feeling. The author points out that, at some point, he decided to write the book as a "Children's Crusade," as the opposite of every past Continue Reading...
There is nothing laudable about young people leaving their homes in order to fight for their countries. Moreover, these young people are very different from how they are usually presented. They are frightened, horrified, and it would be absurd to ca Continue Reading...
Destructiveness of War in "The Things They Carried" and "Slaughterhouse Five" Summary “The Things They Carried” is a series of stories in which the narrator Tim O’Brien describes the experience of soldiers in th Continue Reading...
This idea appears repeatedly. When Billy proposes marriage to Valencia: Billy didn't want to marry ugly Valencia. She was one of the symptoms of his disease. He knew he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to her, when he begged Continue Reading...
Making up the Tralfamadorians and their philosophies can be seen as Billy's way of coming to terms with the things that he cannot understand, a way of silencing the dissonant thoughts in his head. He was shaping his thoughts so that he could live in Continue Reading...
Physical Hazards of Slaughterhouse Workers The Nature of Slaughterhouse Work Musculoskeletal Disorders Diseases Trauma Burns Hearing Safeguards Ergonomics Dangerous Equipment Reporting and Organizational Culture Slaughterhouses are among t Continue Reading...
This author used them to see how Kurt Vonnegut is post-modernist. Barry begins in number one by asking how authors discover postmodernist themes and attitudes. In the observation, postmodernists foreground fiction which might be said to exemplify t Continue Reading...
American Literature War Writing War Themes in American Literature War is one of the toughest topics for writers to handle. They have to deal with extreme inner demons based on their traumatic experiences in the field, but have to do so without comp Continue Reading...
Anti-War Sentiments Vonnegut and Sassoon -- Anti-War Sentiments in Writing Kurt Vonnegut and Sigfried Sassoon are both war veterans turned writers who have writings that can be expressed as anti-war. With both men, their experiences in war left the Continue Reading...
Their methods, however -- regicide, then more murders to cover up the first one, and finally a desperate civil war in an attempt to kill the throne -- are not exactly worthy of nobility. All prophecies are eventually fulfilled; though Macbeth reigns Continue Reading...
Science Fiction A Definition of Science Fiction -- a Frightening realistic glimpse into a probable future "Oh Brave New World! O. Wonder! That Has Such People in it!" This is the poetic exclamation that John the Savage of Aldous Huxley's novel Brav Continue Reading...
The Widow and Miss Watson see nothing wrong with slavery in modern society, while Huck actually takes actions to end slavery by leading Jim to freedom and treating Jim like a human being. 6. "To be or not to be, that is the bare bodkin." Twain, Ma Continue Reading...
Billy Pilgrim has a much different method retreating into the dark depths of his imagination, yet the basic reason remains the same -- escape from a disapproving world. For him, a survivor of one of the worst disasters in World War II, he comes hom Continue Reading...
Starting with the names of the characters and continuing with many of the events in the novel, he is ironically picturing a consumer society that needs to rely on certainties in order to secure its present and avoid alienation, which is why the enti Continue Reading...
The world would now be required to accept socialism, Leninism, and eventually Stalinism, as part of the European landscape. With the defeat of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire; the shift in the balance of power moved toward the only Continue Reading...
Summations by Supreme Court Justices Brennan and Blackmun clearly express why the court voted in favor of the plaintiffs in this important case. First of all, Justice Brennan maintains that the case "does not involve textbooks, or indeed any books Continue Reading...
A Vonnegut theme, however, is often hard to miss; especially since part of Vonnegut's style placed the author in a position where many readers could palpably feel him throughout the novel. Vonnegut seems to read alongside the reader and assist him; Continue Reading...
Thus science and discussions of scientific phenomena with his brother also formed the backdrop to his early life, another reason why technology featured so prominently in his literary works. Vonnegut is credited with helping to elevate the genre of Continue Reading...
Cold War dominated American culture, consciousness, politics and policy for most of the 20th century. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the fall of the Iron Curtain and therefore finale of the Cold War, Cold War rhetoric and p Continue Reading...
The message is further developed when he refuses to listen to her explanation about why she would work as an agent of suicide, explaining that "a woman's not a woman till the pills wear off." (41). Through these twists and turns, we can see Vonnegut Continue Reading...
Yet it is only we who are the intermediary between the world that is real and the world that exists only in our heads. How we organize the world is critical to our understanding of it. More to the point, we have the ability to organize the world any Continue Reading...
This new warfare had psychological as well as purely physical aspects of battle. The will of the Japanese people themselves had to be annihilated by snuffing out the lives of sufficient hundreds of thousands of them. The old weapons were simply not Continue Reading...
What was particularly ironic was that soccer had always been a game for whites only: blacks were specifically not included. Of course, the movie had a happy ending when South Africa won the World Cup. But the World Cup didn't completely change Sout Continue Reading...
On the other hand, a motive of debate was whether or not the Court should be intervening on issues that, ultimately, belong to daily operations in schools. The Court judged, however, that this was a breech to "basic constitutional values" (as in Ep Continue Reading...
Down These Mean Streets believe that every child is born a poet, and every poet is a child. Poetry to me was always a very sacred form of expression. (qtd. In Fisher 2003) Introduction / Background History Born Juan Pedro Tomas, of Puerto Rican and Continue Reading...
Slaughterhouse Cases, Takings Clause PART I Slaughterhouse Cases 198 U.S. 45 Lochner v New York 1904 (Oyez, 2013) UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT Joseph Lochner The People of the State of New York TABLE OF AUTHORITIES FACTS -- Lochner was convicte Continue Reading...
Interest Groups Describe the different types of interest groups (single issue groups and public interest groups) and the goals that each type pursues. Single-issue interest groups are exactly that: groups concerned with one issue, and one issue onl Continue Reading...
When they went into the state of Idaho, however, they changed their approach to sourcing cattle. In this area, there were fewer cattle in general' as a result, IBP purchase a minority interest in a feedlot. Why did the firm acquire this upstream in Continue Reading...
The Supreme Court ruled that the Federal government lacked constitutional authority, mandated by the Fourteenth Amendment, to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations. The court ruling stated that the Civil Rights Act of Continue Reading...
Civilization and Barbarism and Cruelty The works of Esteban Echeverria's El Matadero/The Slaughterhouse and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's Facundo two classic works Argentinean 19th century literature How does one behave like a civilized human being Continue Reading...
Tucker, deputy sheriff of said county, from giving and securing to the said Robert R. Smith and others, naming them, the due and equal protection of the laws of said state, in this, to-wit, that at and before the entering into said conspiracy, the s Continue Reading...
Sharks Are Dangerous to People: Finally, with respect to the argument that sharks constitute a genuine danger because they often attack and eat human beings, that point is both inaccurate and simplistic. Sharks actually avoid human beings except w Continue Reading...
Dangerous conditions are cheaper for companies - and the government does next to nothing." Milo Mumgaard, who is executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center in Omaha, said (in the Lincoln Journal Star) the Human Rights Watch report will be Continue Reading...
