Monday, April 4, 2016

Theme of SH5


Everybody interprets Slaughterhouse Five differently. There are a lot of unclear things through out the book, which leads to many different ways to read it. There is only a few things clear is Slaughterhouse Five, and one is that Kurt Vonnegut does not believe in war.
                                                                                      
The theme of SH5 to me is that war has no true purpose. war is pointless. Kurt Vonnegut expresses that subtly through Slaughterhouse Five. He uses many different symbols and even some mockery to describe the war.

My favorite symbol that Kurt Vonnegut uses to talk about the war is the bird. To me "Poo-tee-weet" just represents the nothingness that can be said about the war, especially the firebombing in Dresden.

Kurt Vonnegut's purpose to me seems like he wants to inform people what World War II was really like. He didn't want to glorify the war like typical movies and books do. Also, he wanted to show what happens to soldiers after the war, because even if they make it out alive, they can end up with mental issues, such as PTSD and others. In the whole first chapter on Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut talks about his real life experiences after the war. This gave me a real perspective of what happens to soldiers after they fight.

So if these things are happening to our soldiers, why do we continue to fight? Will there ever be world peace?
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 4, 2016 at 6:49 PM

    I feel like we continue to fight because to protect our country and to protect whats left of the American Dream. I think we fight because it's almost like our first nature to fight we get scared every time there is a threat made on our country and always our first response seems to be to fight back. I honestly don't see an end to this its one cycle we cant seem to break and for that reason I don't think there will be world peace.

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    1. UnknownApril 4, 2016 at 6:56 PM

      But is the 'American Dream' worth killing he lives of not only our soldiers, but soldiers from other nations and even innocent civilians? What kind of country does that make us?

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  2. Valentina GaspariApril 4, 2016 at 8:30 PM

    I do not believe there will ever be world peace. War is a never ending cycle. We fight for our "Freedom" and our "Safety" and to maintain that it is believed we have to fight for it unfortunately.

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