Relationship Between Slaughterhouse Five and Postmodernism

     Slaughterhouse Five,  by Kurt Vonnegut, is a book in which the styles, origins, and beliefs of Postmodernism resonate very strongly. Perhaps more than any other book I've seen so far, Slaughterhouse Five offers the opportunity for the reader to interpret the story the way that they choose, which reflects one of Postmodernism's key beliefs. The broken chronology of the story, along with a series of unrealistic events like Billy's encounter with the Tralfamadorians, offer plenty of freedom to interpret the meaning of the author's writing in your own way, and to take from the text what you believe is important. In addition to allowing for the unique interpretations of the reader, the author demonstrates many unique interpretations of his own events. For example, on page 69 the author gives dialogue to the German soldiers who have just captured him. Even though he knows no German, he still communicates to the reader the way he interpreted the situation, and how it made an impression in his mind.

     The fact that the story was written on the basis of World War II also relates to postmodernism. As many works of postmodernism were inspired by the war, particularly bombings, and as this book was about the bombing of Dresden, there are many connections between the inspiration for this book and the inspiration of other works of postmodernism. The language, humor, and free-spiritedness of the author throughout also meet my expectations for what I would consider to be Postmodernist literature.

Relationship Between Slaughterhouse Five and my Definition of American Literature

     My definition of American literature mainly focused on the importance of the development of the American identity, as well as American goals that we all share as people of the United States, and how that translates into our literature. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut demonstrates the views of America in many ways, one of which involves English soldiers. In one part of the story, the author makes an effort to describe to the reader how the American prisoners are looked down upon in contrast to the rest of the Europeans, and yet how Billy remains almost completely indifferent to that fact. This reflects not only the development of Billy's individual identity, which is seen throughout the story in other ways talking about different times in his life, but also the development of the identity of the other American soldiers, who had a similar reaction to the insults as Billy. This connects with my definition because the development of the author's identity affects his perspective, similarly to how my definition involved the impact of American identity and culture on their writings.
     The author's goal in the story makes an even stronger connection to my definition. In the story, his goal is to communicate to the reader the problem of warfare. With warfare being seen as a common and shared problem of the people of America, this relates to my definition in that my definition involves writing based on shared interests of the American people, or for the betterment of the American people. Also, the very Postmodernist style of the writing connects to how I mentioned the change of the culture and goals of the writing throughout different periods of time (with this writing, along with much of the writing of Postmodernism, being strongly tied to the events of World War II).

Relationships Between Slaughterhouse Five and Class Readings

     Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, is a very intricate and complex story, which has to be analyzed from different perspectives in order to be fully understood. However, once this is done, many relationships can be found between this book and what we have read from our American Literature anthology in class.
     One of these relationships involves "Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God." This story basically involves the idea that if people do not fix their ways, they are doomed to destruction (or, in the case of this work, eternal damnation). Similarly, Slaughterhouse Five discusses the destruction of the bombing of Dresden due to the inclination of humans towards warfare. The book presents the problem in many forms, be it through a flashback of the life of the main character, Billy, or in remembering the main character's time as a soldier and prisoner of war, or in a dream-induced trip to the planet of Tralfamador, where there is no perception of beginnings and ends, and everyone lives is at peace. One quote which I found to be particularly moving occurred in the middle of the story, where Vonnegut writes of Billy's question to the Tralfamadorians on how to end warfare on Earth:

     "So---" said Billy gropingly, "I suppose that the idea of preventing war on Earth is              stupid, too."
     "Of course."
     "But you do have a peaceful planet here."
     "Today we do. On other days, we have wars as horrible as any you've ever sean or read      about.
     There isn't anything we can do about them, so we simply don't look at them." (149-          150)

This resonated strongly with me as a message from the author on how integrated warfare is in the nature of human beings, and think this excerpt served to support the overall message of the book.
     Another story that Slaughterhouse Five relates to is "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself" (quite the lengthy title). It relates to this story mainly because of its emphasis on travel, and the development of the author's views of the rest of society and the world. Though the stories differ in that one focuses on slavery whereas the other focuses on warfare, they both put emphasis on the betterment of society and establishing meaning within their lives.