Analysis of Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five :: Slaughterhouse-Five Essays

Analysis of Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five Section One- Introduction Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut Junior, waspublished in 1968 after twenty-three geezerhood of intimate anguish.The novel was a progressive work after Vonnegut returned fromWorld War II. Why did it take twenty-three years for KurtVonnegut to write this novel? The answer lies at bottom the book andwithin the man himself. Kurt Vonnegut served in the Armed Forces during World WarII and was captured during The Battle of the Bulge. He anda group of American Prisoners of War were taken to Dresden totake part in a prisoner work camp. Vonnegut and his fellowsoldiers were housed in an underground facility when Dresdenbecame history as the most loss of gentle life at one time. On thenight of February 13, 1945, when the Americans were underground,Dresden was firebombed by the Allied Air Force. The entire citywas annihilated while 135,000 people were ki lled. The number ofcasualties is greater than those of Hiroshima and Nagasakicombined. The bombing of Dresden, Germany is why it took KurtVonnegut so long to write this book. The human pain and sufferingis still fresh in the mind of the generator twenty-three yearslater. One can only imagine the intense emotional scarring thatone would suffer after exiting an underground shelter witha dozen other custody to find a city destroyed and its people dead,corpses laying all around. These feelings are what prompted Kurt Vonnegut to writeSlaughterhouse-Five as he did. The main character of this novelmirrors the author in many ways, still the striking similarity istheir inability to deal with the events of Dresden on the nightof February 13, 1945. Section Two- Critical Commentaries Kurt Vonneguts work is nothing new to critics, butSlaughterhouse-Five is considered to be his best work.