Slaughterhouse-five has a very unique and interesting aspect to it that is not seen in many other books. The author of the book makes himself and his situation known, and then continues to write a story from another persons' point of view that actually sees himself. I like the way that Vonnegut included himself because it added an odd sort of reality check that somewhere in this book Vonnegut could actually switch back to himself and tell another part of his actual life. It's life a novel that includes some true facts. This helped keep me on edge for when he was going to come back in and include a small detail from his POV. This happens on page 211 immediately after a couple interesting lines.
"If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still-if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and the, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice."(211)
I find these two lines so intriguing because it almost makes it seem that Vonnegut takes into great consideration this odd truth that Billy Pilgrim has taken from a fictitious book written by a very strange elder man. This leads to a switch where Vonnegut tells us of a recent happy memory for him in his real life where he imagines dropping bombs on villages that he passes over in a plane. What? This confused me very much, but I think it helps to begin the honing in on the point aspect of the book. War makes people crazy. It brings them to a psychological point that they can no longer think straight. They struggle and battle to maintain a normal persona, but they almost just cannot do it. Billy Pilgrim cannot, and I wouldn't be surprised if Vonnegut cannot either. Sadly, this brings my blogs to an end. Oh well, at least these were a bit more interesting ending with insanity and all.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Slaughterhouse-five #7
The book Slaughterhouse-five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, details the life of Billy Pilgrim. One key feature of the book is the relationships that Billy has with those that are most important in his life. The importance of his father was stressed in the original diagnosis that Billy was going crazy. It was at that point that his mother was able to come to him everyday and, to a certain degree, help him in his struggles of overcoming those relational issues. After this, it seemed that Billy's focus turned to his wife and that this relationship was what kept him intact and whole again as a person. He found meaning in that relationship and was able to hold everything together with his social life, etc. while maintaining this relationship.
I find this build up throughout the majority of the book to be of such importance because in a way, these relationships are not only non-existant in his alternate reality, but the opposite is much different. His relationship with the girl on his zoony planet appears to be purely physical and solely for show of the aliens present. But why does he tell us all of this? I believe that it's because the real relationship that he comes to love and care about it broken by the loss of his wife dying. I see this in the way that he thinks while he is losing his sanity. He chooses to recall his wedding night when he flees his home and goes to New York City. "There had been French doors on the Cape Ann love nest of his honeymoon, still were, always would be."(199). This sentence keys me in on the fact that as he is losing his mind, he focuses in on the past that was good to him. He decides to recall a wonderful time that he spent with his wife (and included in previous parts of the book) into the part where he loses his mind.
I find this build up throughout the majority of the book to be of such importance because in a way, these relationships are not only non-existant in his alternate reality, but the opposite is much different. His relationship with the girl on his zoony planet appears to be purely physical and solely for show of the aliens present. But why does he tell us all of this? I believe that it's because the real relationship that he comes to love and care about it broken by the loss of his wife dying. I see this in the way that he thinks while he is losing his sanity. He chooses to recall his wedding night when he flees his home and goes to New York City. "There had been French doors on the Cape Ann love nest of his honeymoon, still were, always would be."(199). This sentence keys me in on the fact that as he is losing his mind, he focuses in on the past that was good to him. He decides to recall a wonderful time that he spent with his wife (and included in previous parts of the book) into the part where he loses his mind.
Slaughterhouse-five #6
In the book Slaughterhouse-five written by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim loses his marbles. He completely loses touch with reality and begins to incorporate everything that he is witnessing in his real life into what is going on in his fake reality dream planet that he lives on with a pornstar. I see how Vonnegut developed this sense of insanity through his use of picking up on what Billy Pilgrim sees around him and how he interacts with the people in his life and then reflects that into his alternate reality where he is ruled by aliens. The author that he continually writes about is brought up at this point and gives a bit of comic relief by actually having some of his books displayed in a window front at a bookstore in New York City. I find this part to be of utter importance because for this one time Billy reads what he has been trying to convince the reader the entire time and clues us in to the fact that he is insane. He begins reading about a book that he has previously read that is exactly what he has been telling the reader to be truth for the majority of the book. From the phrase "So it goes" to the travel to the planet far away, Billy has kept up this scheme for too long and it has been shot down now. Another clue that I found to be of greater importance that Vonnegut included was that, "He had read it before-years ago, in the veterans' hospital,"(201). This kind of points to the idea that his craziness is a mesh of what happened to his wife that pushed him over the edge and how the war affected him in such a critical way. It put him at a mental state that not many could over come, and within that vulnerability he broke his psych and forever believed what non others would understand.
Slaughterhouse-Five #5
In Slaughterhouse-five, Vonnegut develops both an intricate storyline and a very analytical character. It seems that Billy reads into almost everything around him. Billy more than observes all that he is surrounded by, but instead utilizes every instance to either better his circumstances or somehow alter others around him. Thinks makes me think that the manipulative aspect of Billy is what drives him to insanity. He consumes himself in this idea that the variables around him are unimportant because he is only going to stay in that one moment for a short amount of time. This is because he believes that he is a time traveler. He is not a time traveler, he is crazy.
I have a hunch that his craziness developed as a result of the traumatic death of his wife. The way that she in a way sacrificed herself because of the danger and developing medical condition of her husband drove Billy to convincing himself that her death was a result of his lack of action with the foreknowledge of the crash. Billy chooses to state that he, "Lost his wife,"(182), instead of revealing that she had died. This makes it seem as though Billy had a problem with the action that had taken place and I don't think that that idea corresponds well with what Billy has gone along with so far. What he has gone along with is that death is unimportant because once we are dead we remain alive in various moments throughout time. But in this instance, Billy seems to have lost that control and easy state of mind and begins on a reckless path where those in his life must intervene. It's sad, but I really do feel as though Billy has lost his marbles.
I have a hunch that his craziness developed as a result of the traumatic death of his wife. The way that she in a way sacrificed herself because of the danger and developing medical condition of her husband drove Billy to convincing himself that her death was a result of his lack of action with the foreknowledge of the crash. Billy chooses to state that he, "Lost his wife,"(182), instead of revealing that she had died. This makes it seem as though Billy had a problem with the action that had taken place and I don't think that that idea corresponds well with what Billy has gone along with so far. What he has gone along with is that death is unimportant because once we are dead we remain alive in various moments throughout time. But in this instance, Billy seems to have lost that control and easy state of mind and begins on a reckless path where those in his life must intervene. It's sad, but I really do feel as though Billy has lost his marbles.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Slaughterhouse-five #4
In Slaughterhouse-five written by Kurt Vonnegut, many times the book seems to reference back to itself in a way. Ill explain two instances that played some sort of importance to me. The first was when he referenced that he wasn't going crazy and the second was when he was talking about a German talking to them about war real time.
The first instance was after, "He was going crazy,"(100) and then wrote that it had to do with his relationship with his father and the things they did together. It lists two specific instances the YMCA and the Grand Canyon both of which Vonnegut previously mentioned. Why do they lead to his craziness? Truly I'd like to understand that more. What does this signify about his relationship with those around him?
The second instance was when the German said, "We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies,"(106) which gave a reference back to his old war times friends wife. I found this significant because I wonder how much Vonnegut is including in order to build up what he said he would do for that woman. Does this clarify in a way that this book in no way will promote war? Again, I guess I will come to find out!
Slaughterhouse-Five #3
In Slaughterhouse-five written by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy continues to journey through time and space to a different planet where his life is controlled and run by aliens. These aliens have him do strange things and I'm beginning to wonder whether any of that story line is too. I'm not sure what the literary term for intertwining two stories at one is called, but Mr. Vonnegut accomplishes this wonderfully. He has two stories of Billy going at once via time travel and within these many insertions of random stories and facts that contribute or apply in some way to the development of Billy over time. These continually cause me to go back and read and look for connections to the rest of the book.
Near the end if section two in our reading, I think that I found a place where my Vonnegut may have led the readers to believe that Billy was actually only dreaming about the time travel. He writes that Billy time travels and then writes that, "He had had a wet dream about Montana Wildhack,"(134), which indicates that during his "time travel" he managed to have a dream about what happened to him during his time travel. I find that to be very unlikely and seriously wonder if Mr. Vonnegut is cuing us in on something bigger. Maybe Billy is just a crazy dude, I guess I'll just have to read more to find out.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Slaughterhouse-five #2
In my second blog for Slaughterhouse-five written by Mr. Vonnegut, I would like to discuss some topics that I briefly tipped off on in the first blog. First off, I'd like to point towards some repetition that I found and continually find more and more interesting as I read on in the book. One phrase that I continually see repeated is the phrase "So it goes" repeated over and over. I'll come back to the origin of the phrase in a later blog but as for now I'd like to discuss it's meaning and significance. I see it most commonly used after the death of a person, or thing really, that has perished in the eyes of a human. This must play some sort of significance for the stance that Vonnegut is portraying to the reader.
As of now, I'm not entirely clear on what Mr. Vonnegut's stance is towards war, but this continual use of the phrase makes me truly wonder what it is that fuels Mr. Vonnegut's use of "So it goes." I wonder if it has to do with this concept that I have come up with after reading some ways into the book that death/perishing is unavoidable. Maybe because Billy has seen so much death and destruction he has become desensitized to the reality that at some point or another. I find that this makes so much sense to me because of the hallucinating and out of this world experiences that Billy Pilgrim is enduring. I started thinking along these lines when I read on page 43 that, "His attention began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, passing into death, which was violent light,"(43) which gives me the idea that time and lifespan don't mean much to one that is continually moving from place to place within his own past, present, and future.
As of now, I'm not entirely clear on what Mr. Vonnegut's stance is towards war, but this continual use of the phrase makes me truly wonder what it is that fuels Mr. Vonnegut's use of "So it goes." I wonder if it has to do with this concept that I have come up with after reading some ways into the book that death/perishing is unavoidable. Maybe because Billy has seen so much death and destruction he has become desensitized to the reality that at some point or another. I find that this makes so much sense to me because of the hallucinating and out of this world experiences that Billy Pilgrim is enduring. I started thinking along these lines when I read on page 43 that, "His attention began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, passing into death, which was violent light,"(43) which gives me the idea that time and lifespan don't mean much to one that is continually moving from place to place within his own past, present, and future.
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