Unstuck in Time: The World of Kurt Vonnegut
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Presentation Transcript
Slaughterhouse-Five Mark Naff Per.5 Becker AP Lit
Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) • War veteran. POW at Dresden. • From family of German free thinkers. • Prominent family. • Created his own world of fiction. • Wrote in an often darkly comic tone. • Known for socialist beliefs.
Context • Response to Dresden. • 1960’s: war’s portrayal. • Vietnam War. • Space Age.
Setting • Constant change in settings: -1945 Dresden. -Late 1960’s Ilium, New York. -Tralfamadore, 1967. -Late 1960’s New York city.
Plot Synopsis • Disjointed narrative with multiple threads. • Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. • Billy lived through the Dresden bombing, was abducted by aliens, survived a plane crash.
Character Analsyis. Billy Pilgrim (1923-1976 Edgar Derby (1900?-1944) • Tall, funny looking character. • Everyman. • Prisoner of war. • Abducted be aliens. • Avid fan of Kilgore Trout. • Teacher. • Better shape than most of the soldiers. • Always referred to as “poor Edgar Derby.” • Shot at Dresden.
Character Analysis 2 Valencia Merble Barbara Pilgrim • Billy’s plump wife who admires him. • Good natured. • Daughter of a rich optometrist. • Dies of carbon monoxide poisoning. • Controlling daughter of Billy. • Acts as a mother to him after the plane crash. • Considers her father crazy after he claims to be abducted by aliens on her wedding night.
Character Analysis 3 Paul Lazzaro Roland Weary • Vows revenge against anybody who hurt him in the war. • Believe Billy killed Roland. • Kills Billy in 1976. • Hero in his mind. • Member of “The Three Musketeers.” • Dies on the way to the POW camps.
Tralfamadorians • Appear as plungers to us. • Similar to the humans. • Know the end of the universe. • Stay in good times.
Vonnegut’s world • Howard W. Campbell from Mother Night (1961). • Rosewater (God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater (1965)) • Kilgore Trout from many novels. • Bertram Copeland Rumfoord.
Motifs • “So it goes.”-Phrase constantly uttered after all tragedies. • “Poo-Too-weet?”-bird call. • Narrator in story.
Themes • Destructiveness of War. -Destroys all including Billy. • How humans do not have free will. -All moments occur according to a schedule. -The end of the universe always occurs. -“So it goes.”
Rhetorical Devices • Satire. • Irony. • Allusion. • Foreshadowing. • Flashback, flash-forward. • Change in perspective.