Mental Anguish of War in Kurt Vonnegut's Novel Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut was there » he was at the Slaughterhouse, Although felt his experiences weren’t extraordinary, he chose to write one that was. He merged time travel and menial escapism. Vonneguts imprisonment In war experiences is then translated into Slaughterhouserfive. The novel. Slaughterhouse-five. is one of the feW novels that explores the mental anguish of War. The novel proves that War can play With people’s minds, especially soldiers who have become prisoners of war (POWs). The mental effect on prisoners of war is far greater than that on soldiers and others associated With war.

They experienced very gruesome experiences and were treated as if they were not human beings but like animals put in a slaughterhouse. In fact, Billy Pilgrim actually was put in a slaughterhouse and was a changed man when he came out. He was lucky enough to get out.

Being a prisoner of War changed Billy’s thought process and how he viewed the world. Instead of turning to God, he chose to turn to aliens of Tralfamadore that he made up in his head.

He chose to turn away from God because he always associated God with death and suffering and he decided that he has had enough of that in his life, Although the war was what caused him to go somewhat crazy and create his own planet in his head, he learned a great lesson from them. He learned to embrace the thinking of Tralfamadore because it absolved him from even trying to change the way things are.

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The greatest thing he learned was: The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always Will exist.

This novel shows that free will is just an illusion to the prisoners of war and that no matter what they do. their fate has already been decided. POWs could have been the best well-dressed soldier or strongest and most determined soldier, but that had Zero effect on their fate. That soldier would have the same fate or even worse fate as someone like Billy Pilgrim who was a scrawny soldier With no desire to live. The fact that he survives the incident as an improperly trained joke of a soldier is a testament to the deterministic forces that render free Will and human effort an illusion, This was something that Billy learned from his Tralfamadorian friends; they tell Billy that the Whole idea of free will seems to be unique to Earthlings. Everyone else in the universe knows better. Billy uses this knowledge to comfort himself about the realities of aging, death, and pain. Even if human beings have to suffer, at least there is nothing to be done about it. From his time in war, he learns to accept things the way they are and that no matter what he does, he cant alter the future or the present View of the world.

The novel shows that the war can have adverse reactions on people: either positive or negative, In Slaughterhouse-five, Billy Pilgrim loses his emotions and seems to have no emotional connection to anyone, except the Tralfamadorians. after the war. This has had a positive and negative affect on him as a person. Being a prisoner of war caused him to internalize the War and not allow him to face up to What he has experienced. This effect can be good and bad for him. He has pretty much-accepted everything that has happened to him In his life. He has not let it affect him. Keeping everything to himself has offered him a sense of relief because he doesnt let it eat him alive like a lot of others do. But, it also is a bad thing for him as well because it never allows him to face up to what he has experienced and never lets him get over it. He has no emotional connection with anybody because those that he could have a connection With arent alive, or are even more messed up than him.

The only people he really connects with are the Tralfamadorians, who really are all on his head. So basically the only person he can connect with after the war is himself. This novel is one of the few novels that explores the mental anguish of war, It is not a book saying that War is bad and that we should do all we can to stop it, Instead, it is a unique War book showing what POWs, specifically, have to go through and hoW their worlds and minds have changed because of the war. Harrison Star says to Kurt Vonnegut stopping war is like stopping a glacier. Do you know what I say to people when I hear they’re Writing antiwar books? ‘Why don’t you Write an anti-glare book instead?’