Slaughterhouse V -1

Why Write?

Outline
  

General Introduction Starting Questions on Chapter 1 Chapter I:

  

Frames Why Write the author in the text Views of Life So it goes

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - )

 

 

The author in SH-V. Joined WWII, became a prisoner of war during the Battle of the Bulge (the last offensive on Germanys part) on December 14, 1944, and sent to Dresden. Studied anthropology in the University of Chicago, but his thesis was rejected. Became a writer since, published Slaughterhouse-Five in 1968 (the peak of anti-war movement), which made him successful and a guru figure in post-60s literary field.

Slaughterhouse-Five--Background
Dresden Bombing:
  

Dresden -- "Florence on the Elbe" February 13 & 14, 1945; estimated deaths: 130,000 to 250,000, almost all of them civilians. Part of a massive attack coded as Thunderclap, which targeted the German cities of Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz.

Irony: Dresden is not a strategic point (no factories, no railways, bridges, etc, but a lot POWs) meaninglessness

Slaughterhouse-Five--Plot
Time Traveling -Four segments of Billy Pilgrims  1922 - his childhood,  1944 - his World War II years,  1968 - his postwar life as a family man and optometrist in New York,  his capture by aliens who come from the planet Tralfamadore

Starting Questions
 

Why does the author discuss how he gets to write this novel? What views of the war, history and life does he introduces here?

Chapter I the Frame of the Story

the author in the novel  Makes claim to reality p. 1  Discusses
  

his inability to write; How the novel is prepared for; Dresden in context

Why write
For writing:


Dresden, worse than Hiroshima, but not much publicity p. 10; Obsessed (as telephoners, but his memory useless p. 13-14 repetitions as nonsense or false starts (or rhymes p. 7; of names p. 4; so it goes) anti-war being anti-glacier, or anti-death 3-4 OHares wife: books encouraging wars 15 Lots wife looking back

Against writing:
  

Preparation: Exposing the Frames

  

1. the title decided, Childrens Crusade 15 and research arranging climax and plots p. 5; to the publisher 19 nothing intelligent to say about a massacre

Historical Perspectives:
 

Childrens Crusade --sold as slaves; p.16 The seige of Dresden in 1760 History is not progressive; Is it linear?

Life as a Dark comedy

 

Self-Belittling: the authors life after the war //Yon Yonson 2-3, 7, 11 (//Billy Pilgrim) Lifes transience -- So it Goes


as a reporter 9 -So it goes. News medias indifference (later) airplane crash, and the wifes car accident 25)lice, champaign 84; 73

if the accident will. p. 2

Life as Presented by Commercial Culture

 

P. 18 Worlds Fair in NY; Three Musketeers candy bar More next time

Characters (mentioned so far)



Views of people no difference? P. 8

   

Bernard V. O'Hare Edgar Derby Roland Weary Paul Lazarro