I recently just finished reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, this book surprised me with it's detailed plot, I had expected a realistic book but it was more in depth than that.
Quote of the Book: There are many meaningful quotes in the book, this book was supposed to have similar aspects to Kurt Vonnegut's actual life. The quote I found interesting was “If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings,” said the Tralfamadorian, “I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by ‘free will." This quote is appears at an interesting time in the book because these aliens in the book know about all their destinies but cannot run away from them, instead they travel to different points in their life and re experience them instead. I found that interesting with this quote because the aliens had traveled to many different planets but had never heard of such a thing as free will until they came to planet Earth. Because the aliens do not think they can control their fates they seem to not know that free will is possible because that might possibly change destiny (although it didn't).
Connections –
I cannot recall many connections to this book as a whole but there are many small instances where the book connects to other books, events, and movies.
A movie I saw a long time ago called Minority featuring Tom Cruise is about an organization that tries to stop crimes before they happen, they use special people that can see the future to find the location and time of the crime. This movie is of course different from the book because the movie shows that destiny can’t be changed, however, near the climax of the movie ( I won’t spoil it) it appears that some destinies can’t be stopped.
The book brings up a philosophical theory of how destiny cannot be changed, or it can. I have always thought about this philosophy because there are good arguments for each side that I think about in my head and I never really came to a conclusion on if destinies can be changed or not. For one you can change your destiny by not stepping on the bus when you could have and you continue to live while the people on the bus die but that might mean that your destiny was always to never set foot on the bus.
A movie series that I have seen that reminds me of this book is the final destination series. The movies in the series are about people who have escaped death’s grasp but have not been granted a second chance and will die very soon because death still wants them. The movie is again, about changing destiny, the characters in the movie try to be cautious and figure out a way to survive and change their destiny from dying earlier than they wanted to. As a horror movie, they tried to make an ending that would give you a lasting effect on the idea of unable to change your destiny of dying and that is the reason that the movie series reminded me of Slaughterhouse 5.
Visual Representation – I chose this image to represent the visual side of the story because the main character of the story, Billy survived the Dresden Bombings during World War 2 and when he sees a barbershop quartet is reminded of the Dresden bombings because it triggers a memory he had in Dresden making him breakdown for a moment. Billy survived the Dresden bombings by hiding in an airtight meat locker as the fires took all the oxygen from the area around them. Vonnegut was a spectator of the fire bombings and when he wrote this book he probably showed how he felt of the fire bombings through Billy.
Discussion Questions:
How does Vonnegut’s use of time shifting affect the story as opposed to a linear story?
What did Vonnegut mean when he said that Billy was unstuck in time?
Do the aliens have an connection to Vonnegut’s life?
What is the moral message behind Slaughterhouse 5?
What does being human mean to Vonnegut?
Reflection – Vonnegut’s tone is ironic and powerful, his tagline “and so it goes” is embedded into my head, my friends tell me that he uses this phrase in his other books as well and I look forward to reading them. Vonnegut uses black comedy in his book but it does not hinder the emotional and meaningful context of the book nor does it change the tone. I read many books similar to Vonnegut’s style of writing and although I do not enjoy them in the beginning, when I am coming closer to the middle of the book I get a better understanding and start to enjoy what I read.
