LITERATURE ANALYSIS #2

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

1.  Slaughterhouse-Five has an extremely non-linear narrative.  Part of the story tells of Billy's time on Tralfamadore, and part tells of his time in World War II.  Tralfamadore is an alien planet Billy creates in his mind after a plane crash from implied brain damage.  The narrative is structured so that the timeline jumps around.  Nothing is in chronological order.  This serves Vonnegut's purpose in that it represents the Tralfamadorian view of time, which is that everything exists now.  There is no past or future, every moment is already laid out.  Billy observes this while on the planet and it helps him revisit moments he'd lived through in the war.
2.  Slaughterhouse-Five deals with themes of war, humanity, and the nature of time.  This novel serves a larger purpose than entertainment in that it is very anti-war; it was a platform for Vonnegut, who served in World War II, to express his stance on war.  The frank scenes of the novel do nothing to glorify war.  The one that repeatedly pops into mind is the post-feast prison camp American shitfest.  What is so moving about this scene is that Vonnegut reveals this part of the story was based on his own war experience.
Time is addressed differently in this novel than it usually is.  It is not a line with a starting point and an end, but rather resembles a deck of cards laid out on a table.  All moments exist at once; past and future are inventions of men.
Humanity and its absence in time of war is also a heavy theme.  The bombing of Dresden resulted in some 160,000 deaths is only an example of the careless throwing away of human lives.  From the harsh, life taking conditions of trains and prisons, to the erupting violence, mankind remains merciless in war.
3.  Vonnegut's tone is very bleak and, while cynical, also a bit hopeful.  "On the eighth day, the forty-year-old hobo said to Billy, 'This ain't bad.  I can be comfortable anywhere.'  'You can?' said Billy.  On the ninth day, the hobo died.  So it goes.  His last words were, 'You think this is bad?  This ain't bad.'"  Is 'this ain't bad' a hopeful statement, or an acknowledgement that things can still get worse? 
"Billy had an extremely gruesome crucifix hanging on the wall of his little bedroom in Ilium.  A military surgeon would have admired the clinical fidelity of the artist's rendition of all Christ's wounds- the spear wound, the thorn wounds, the holes that were made by the iron spikes.  Billy's Christ died horribly.  He was pitiful."  This pitiful Christ represents the victims of war; there is no glory, but only slow and bloody death.  This paints Vonnegut's picture of war. 
Again, Vonnegut's pitiful war, "Human beings in there were excreting into steel helmets which were passed to the people at the ventilators, who dumped them.  Billy was a dumper."  This matter-of-fact statement regarding Billy's status as a dumper shows the truth of the situation, no sugarcoating.
4.  1.  "It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor.  Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than men with power and gold.  No such tales are told by the American poor." (Page 163).  America is compared with other nations regarding its wealth gap and singled out as one of the only countries that gives no respect to its poor.
2.  A reference to a painting is made to draw an image into the reader's mind.  "He was the central clown in an unconscious travesty of that famous oil painting, 'The Spirit of '76.'" (Page 182).
3.  "If he had been a dog in a city, a policeman would have shot him and sent his head to a laboratory, to see if he had rabies.  So it goes." (Page 183).  Without saying much about Lazzaro's behavior, Vonnegut gives the reader a good idea of how he's acting with this technique of comparing him to a rabid dog.
4.  "Billy, with his memories of the future, knew that the city would be smashed to smithereens and then buried-in about thirty more days." (Page 191).  Of course, one cannot have a memory of the future.  This future memory is an oxymoron, used to illustrate Billy's new perception of time.
5.  "'All the real soldiers are dead,' she said." (Page 203).  Reinforcing his cynical tone, Vonnegut reminds the reader of the nature of war and its capacity to obliterate.
6.  "She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies." (Page 217).  Another way of calling someone dumb or boring but attractive.
7.  "The master of ceremonies asked people to say what they thought the function of the novel might be in modern society, and one critic said, 'To provide touches of color in rooms with all-white walls.'  Another one said, 'To describe blow-jobs artistically."  Another one said, 'To teach wives of junior executives what to buy next and how to act in a French restaurant." (Page 263).
8.  "Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops." (Page 48).  This sentence is a very powerful representation of American consumerism.
9.  "And Billy took a very short trip through time, made a peewee jump of only ten days, so he was still twelve, still touring the West with his family." (Page 113).  Billy does not literally travel through time, but remembers the past.
10.  "Billy was unconscious for two days after that, and he dreamed millions of things, some of them true.  The true things were time-travel." (Page 200).  These things are true because they are Billy's memories, not because he literally traveled through time while asleep.

CHARACTERIZATION
1.  Direct Characterization:
     1.  "There, inches from the tips of Weary's combat boots, were the pitiful buttons of Billy's spine." (Page 64).  Billy is clearly very skinny and weak.  Vonnegut directly describes Billy lying on the floor here, his bony spine visible.
     2.  "And then Billy was a middle-aged optometrist again, playing hacker's golf this time- on a blazing summer Sunday morning." (Page 107).  This gives a healthier view of Billy, directly describing his occupation and age.
     Indirect Characterization:
     1.  "Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel." (Page 101).  A very sickly image of Billy is conjured here by Vonnegut, though he doesn't say anything about Billy's state of health directly.
     2.  "Another time Billy heard Rosewater say to a psychiatrist, 'I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living.'" (Page 128).  Rosewater is clearly a cynical, probably depressed man.  This dialogue gives the reader insight into his character.
2.  Vonnegut's diction and syntax do vary depending on character.  "Outside the plane, the machine named Valencia Merble Pilgrim was eating a Peter Paul Mound Bar and waving bye-bye." (Page 196).  Here is an example of changing diction: Vonnegut would not use words like "bye-bye" when speaking of other characters.  This is used to indirectly make Valencia seem childlike.  His diction also changes when discussing the war, with more intense words used like "contempt" and "obliterated." 
3.  Billy is definitely a round, dynamic character.  Pieces from each time period of his life are included in the novel, giving the reader a view of how the war changed Billy as an individual and damaged his mind.  His characteristics change and it becomes apparent quickly that he is not a static character.  He is round in that he has a wide range of emotions and reactions.
4.  I felt like Billy was a real person by the end of the novel.  He was a broken person who had been through hell, not a superhuman hero.  He seemed very human and remained relatable to the average person the whole way through.