Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is an anti-war novel written in the late 1960's. The main character of the novel is Billy Pilgrim. The book follows his many endeavors as he fought in world war II. In this book, Billy faces many conflicts. He faces both internal conflicts and external ones.
In this book, Billy faces a lot of external conflicts. One of the external conflicts that he faces is that his partner in the war is hot-headed and abusive. He beats Billy whenever he seems to do something wrong (which is often). But Billy is actually handling this conflict pretty well. He sees his partner's insults and punches as a way of keeping him awake, since he feels that he can never keep up with what's going on in the war. He believes that if it wasn't for his partner, he'd be dead by now. Another external conflict that he faces is the fact that he is in the war. He is not handling being in the war very well at all. He is in no physical or emotional shape that could allow him to fight in the war as he is supposed to. So all in all, Billy Pilgrim faces a lot of external conflict in this book.
Billy also faces a lot of internal conflict in this book. He does not want to be in the war, but feels that he should be in the war because he thinks it is honorable. For example, Billy's mind is almost never on the war. It is always on either his past, or his future, He does not seem to like to think about the present, the present being the war. But Billy is also fascinated by the thought of him in the war. He looks at himself as a proud American soldier, no matter how bad of a soldier he might actually be. In the end, Billy faces a lot of internal conflict in the book as well.
In conclusion, Billy faces a lot of internal and external conflict in the book Slaughterhouse-Five. I actually found Billy's situation to be extremely hard to relate to. So little emotion is conveyed throughout this book, that I just look at Billy as a person with an inconvenient life, someone that I hardly know. I do know what happened to him, but I don't know what it meant to him. But that is what makes this book special. It is unlike anything that I have read before.
Great job! I am now interested in reading this book. You were concise and descriptive. You gave context from the story so I get a sense of what the book is about.
ReplyDeleteI love your comment about how Billy is a proud American soldier, even though he isn't a good one. It's the thought and courage that counts.
Your post makes me really want to read this book! It sounds interesting, I liked how you described the context before introducing your claim and your evidence.
ReplyDeleteBased on this post I really want to read this book. How you went into description was really good! Great job!
ReplyDelete(Did you read this book because of Footloose?)