Through his experiences and adventures, Billy becomes a symbol more than a mere character. He obviously has more insight into how things truly are, than the rest of the characters in the book. Not accidentally, Billy becomes unstuck in time precisely during the Second World War, hinting thus at the need to escape the imminence of death as a constantly pending menace: "The Tralfamadorians didn't have anything to do with his coming unstuck They were simply able to give him insights into what was really going on."(Vonnegut, 18) as such, Billy is the best optometrist because he can correct the vision of the other people, by letting them see "what was really going on." His role is to take the reader away from the immediate reality, and prove the inconsistency of war. Eliot Rosewater is another important character, introduced as Billy's companion in a mental institution. Rosewater is the one who first initiates Billy in good science-fiction writing, especially into that of Kilgore Trout. In many ways, Rosewater is Billy's guide in the novel. Because he reflects the same anti-war feeling that pervades Slaughterhouse Five, Rosewater seems to be of the same party as Billy and the narrator. I think that Rosewater should be given an award for his belief in science fiction as the only thing able to save humans from their enclosed, immediate reality. The fact that Rosewater takes science fiction as something which is truthful and comforting at the same time indicates that he believes...
As well as Billy or the narrator, Rosewater is a victim of the cruelty that he has seen in the war. A former captain of infantry, he has witnessed enough of war to understand that humanity needs to save itself by re-inventing the universe: "So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help."(Vonnegut, 55) Science fiction is not seen thus as an escapism device, but rather as a way of looking beyond the immediate limits of reality. Rosewater believes that psychology should also be re-invented so that the ugliness of war should be atoned for somehow: "I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living."(Vonnegut, 56) Finally, Rosewater's belief in the fourth dimension as a locus of the truly fantastic and important things indicates that commonly people have but a limited and incomplete view of reality: "One thing Trout said that Rosewater liked very much was that there really were vampires and werewolves and goblins and angels and so on, but that they were in the fourth dimension."(Vonnegut, 59)
The author even inserts himself as a character throughout key events, such as the latrine at the POW camp and digging in the corpse mines in Dresden. The insertions serve to remind the reader that though fiction, the events described in the novel actually happened, to people like Billy Pilgrim/Kurt Vonnegut. However, Vonnegut also uses several techniques not found in the works of noted memoir writers such as Tobias Wolff
Thus science and discussions of scientific phenomena with his brother also formed the backdrop to his early life, another reason why technology featured so prominently in his literary works. Vonnegut is credited with helping to elevate the genre of science fiction, once considered a staple of pulp magazine racks, to that of high art. Cat's Cradle tells the tale of scientists trying to create 'ice-nine,' a crystal that could turn
The best evidence for this suffusion in the author's own life is in the final chapter, when the main character/author returns in full force. Traveling peacefully and happily in a plane above Berlin, during a moment he considers "one of the nicest ones in recent times" (Vonnegut, p. 211), removed in time and space from Dresden, Vonnegut "imagined dropping bombs on those lights, those villages and cities and towns," (Vonnegut,
I enjoyed Vonnegut's commentary on the strangeness of humankind's foibles and I was not shocked by some of his matter-of-fact depictions. Indeed, when Vonnegut draws on his own real-life experiences, the novel takes on an air of authenticity. This authenticity coupled with Vonnegut's wry, black humor makes the novel seem caustic and ironic, but at heart it is neither -- it is simply a record of things both real and
The failed quest of Vonnegut the character underlines another important theme of the novel -- although life may seem 'fated' as Pilgrim perceives it to be, our own perceptions affect how we see our past and reconstruct the past. Our minds are erasers, always writing and rewriting events. Our perception of time is highly personalized. For example, Vonnegut the character is surprised that his old friend Bernard has changed
A Vonnegut theme, however, is often hard to miss; especially since part of Vonnegut's style placed the author in a position where many readers could palpably feel him throughout the novel. Vonnegut seems to read alongside the reader and assist him; he seems to teach and guide -- gently -- as well as write. As such, Vonnegut helped re-define what high art, and the novel specifically, could be: Irving, who
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