The Life of Billy Pilgrim in Vonneguts...

The Life of Billy Pilgrim in Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five or The Childrens Crusade Marked by two world wars and the anxiety that accompanies humanitys knowledge of the ability to destroy itself, the Twentieth Century has produced literature that attempts to depict the plight of the modern man living in a modern waste land. If this sounds dismal and bleak, it is. And that is precisely why the dark humor of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. shines through our post-modern age. The devastating bombing of Dresden, Germany at the close of World War II is the subject of Vonneguts most highly acclaimed work, Slaughterhouse-Five or The Childrens Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death. Vonneguts experience as an American POW in Dresden†¦show more content†¦Vonnegut was there, and his compulsion to tell about it urged him to eventually find a way. Ironically, it was the cool meat locker of Slaughterhouse-Five in Dresden, three levels beneath the earth, that saved Vonnegut and a handful of POWs from the bombing that killed the thousands of men, women and children above ground in the German town. While exchanging memories with an old war buddy, Bernard V. OHare, Vonnegut sensed Mrs. OHares obvious rage. Her livid commentary on Vonneguts attempt to write about Dresden inspired the subtitle The Childrens Crusade: You were just babies in the war-like the ones upstairs! . . . Youll pretend you were men instead of babies, and youll be played in movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so well have a lot more of them. And theyll be fought by babies, like the babies upstairs (18). Vonnegut explains his vow to Mary OHare to set out against any machoistic depiction of the massacre at Dresden, hence the name, The Childrens Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. His narrative begins with the simple Billy Pilgrim who has come unstuck in time (29). The pilgrimage of Billy Pilgrim does not begin at Dresden or end with his death decades later. Billy is unstuck in time, and the moments of hisShow MoreRelated The Theme of Time in Slaughterhouse-Five Essay1065 Words   |  5 PagesThe Theme of Time in Slaughterhouse-Five Many writers in history have written science fiction novels and had great success with them, but only a few have been as enduring over time as Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five is a personal novel which draws upon Vonneguts experiences as a scout in World War Two, his capture and becoming a prisoner of war, and his witnessing of the fire bombing of Dresden in February of 1945 (the greatest man-caused massacre in history). 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