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.