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.
No comments:
Post a Comment