Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five"

Paper Summary:

This paper provides an overview of Kurt Vonnegut and his book, "Slaughterhouse Five", or "The Children's Crusade", from the perspective of its inadvertent contribution to increasing the level of overall geopolitical awareness in America, followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.

From the Paper:

"According to one of his many biographers, Kurt Vonnegut studied at Cornell University before serving in the U.S. Air Force in World War II (Reed 1997). Vonnegut was captured by the Germans, and was one of the survivors of the fire bombing of Dresden, Germany, that took place in February 1945. Vonnegut's book, Slaughterhouse Five, or The Children's Crusade (1969) is his attempt to recreate his Dresden experiences in a fictional form; the book uses that bombing raid as a symbol of the cruelty and destructiveness of war down through the centuries using a mixture of dark fantasy and "numb, loopy humor" (Giles & Dickstein 2003:11). An interesting benefit that has been realized from this evocative story about an otherwise-horrifying event (particularly one in which the United States did not play an all-that-honorable-role) has been its impact on raising the level of geopolitical awareness among Americans who have read the book. In this regard, Vonnegut has provided a poignant account of an event in history that contributes to this understanding. "

More papers on Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five":

• Term Paper # 124730 : "The Life of Kurt Vonnegut"
• Book Review # 106959 : "Kurt Vonnegut"
• Book Review # 149953 : "Finding the Self in "Slaughterhouse-Five"
• Book Review # 120378 : "Free Will and Determinism in "Slaughterhouse Five"

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