Slaughterhouse Five Essay -- essays research papers

Slaughterhouse-FiveCritics often suggest that Kurt Vonneguts novels represent a mans desperate, yet, futile search for meaning in a senseless existence. Vonneguts novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, displays this theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses a narrator, which is unalike from the main character. He uses this technique for several reasons. Kurt Vonnegut introduces Slaughterhouse Five in the first person. In the second chapter, however, this narrator changes to a mere bystander. Vonnegut does this for a detail reason. He wants the reader to realize that the narrator and Billy Pilgrim, the main character, are two different people. In order to do this, Vonnegut places the narrator in the text, on several occasions. An American near Billy wailed that Billy had excreted everything but his brains...That was I. That was me. This statement clearly illustrates that the narrator and Billy are not the same person. The narrator was theAmerican stimulate by Billy. Vonnegut places the narrator in the novel in subtle ways. While describing the German prisoner trains, he merely states, I was there. By not referring to Billy as I, Billy is immediately an individual person. I is the narrator, while Billy is Billy. Their single connection is that they were both in the war. Kurt Vonnegut places his experiences and his views in the text. He begins the book by stating, All this happened, much or less...