Monday, December 1, 2008

Thoughts on "Slaughterhouse Five"

As I first began reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, I couldn’t help but be perplexed on the first chapter. I didn’t really mind how it was basically more of a background on Vonnegut, and I also loved reading about the parts pertaining to his friend’s wife Mary and the Gideon Bible. However, I was hoping to get into the story right away, which made me glad when I finally got to chapter two.

But then I became even more perplexed. Had this Billy Pilgrim discovered time travel!? I’m sure Uncle Rico would’ve loved to have known (Kudos if you can figure out that movie reference). However, as strange as the book may be so far, I loved reading about Billy’s aliens: the Tralfamadorians. Their philosophy on death really was interesting and comforting. Although the person who has died may appear dead, he or she is still very much alive in the past. According to the people of Tralfamadore, “all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist.” Then Vonnegut shows how Earth has the allusion that events and moments play out one after another like “beads on a string.” This was just so ingenious to me, making the Tralfamadore passage my favorite so far in the book.

Another aspect that I really enjoyed about the book so far are some of the descriptions Vonnegut wisely uses. For instance, when Vonnegut describes Billy being shot at from enemy soldiers, he describes the bullet as a “lethal bee buzzing past his ear.” Another simile that I loved from Vonnegut was when he described how he carried “a bottle of Irish whiskey like a dinner bell” in front of his friend O’Hare. It’s creative descriptions like these that really kept my interest while reading the book.

In the end, while I thought the book was oddly strange, it still did manage to capture my attention through Vonnegut’s original writing and imagination. Perhaps the book is meant to be so bizarre that it oddly works?

5 comments:

Kristi said...

I like your post. And movie reference... it's not back to the future is it?

Anywho... I LOVE LOVE LOVE the story with the aliens for the same reason...I actually just recently finished a post about it myself. They are also my favorite part of the story so far. I have found myself referencing them quite often.

And his unique use of language and references such as on page 54 where it says: "The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the zipper on the fly of God Almighty." I had to reread this sentence a few times to make sense of it before I just starting laughing. Brilliant I thought.

Katie B. said...

Was the movie Napoleon Dynamite?

Nicole H. said...

Hey,
I also love the similies that Vonnegut uses it deffinitly keeps the book a lot more interesting.

AGray said...

UNCLE RICO!??!?!!??!

OMG! hahahahaha! Kyle you never cease to amaze me.

Your thoughts on the first chapter were almost exact to mine! I liked the first chapter, I was a little confused but I was relieved when the second chapter started in; I could follow it!

I also like how the occurrence of these so called 'aliens' hahaha.

Lovely Blog as always. Very intriguing.

bye! =)

Becca K. said...

I agree that the Tramalfadorians "philosophy on death really was interesting and comforting." One thing I thought about though, was that it isn't comforting for those humans who aren't "unstuck" in time like Billy Pilgrim. The rest of the Earthlings don't understand the idea that though a person dies, he or she still lives on in the moments of the past. That isn't much comfort for the person who can't go back to those moments and be with the person again. I wonder if the Tramalfadorians or Billy Pilgrim are going to try to make everyone else "unstuck in time." Can you imagine the mess we would have if everyone jumped randomly from moment to moment? I wonder...