The Search for Meaning in Slaughterhouse Five essays

The Search for Meaning in Slaughterhouse Five essays Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five represents a man's desperate, yet, useless search for meaning in a senseless existence. Vonnegut uses a narrator, which is different from the main character to develop his theme. Vonnegut introduces Slaughterhouse Five in first person point of view. In the second chapter, however, this narrator changes to a bystander who speaks from a third person perspective. Vonnegut wants the reader to realize that the narrator and Billy Pilgrim, the main character, are two different people. In order to do this, Vonnegut places the narrator in the text, multiple times. An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains...That was I. That was me.? This statement clearly illustrates that the narrator and Billy are not the same people. The narrator was the American disgusted by Billy. Vonnegut places his experiences and his views in the text. He begins the book by stating, "All this happened, more or less." The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true...I?ve changed all of the names.? He feels war is a senseless act and, Slaughterhouse Five allows Vonnegut to express his feelings on the matter. Through Billy Pilgrim, he is able to portray his views. They had been lying in ambush for the Germans. They had been discovered and shot from behind. Now they were dying in the snow, feeling nothing, turning the snow the color of raspberry sherbet. So it goes.? He uses vivid and meaningful imagery here. The reader can picture the snow slowly being colored with the blood of the soldiers. By ending with the statement,So it goes,? The reader is satisfied. Vonnegut uses this statement throughout the book to show that death is death, there is no glorious or great death; all death is equal. Vonnegut doesn't want to glorify war. The narrator made a vow to O?Hare's wife , in chapter one, that the story would not do this. ...I give my word of honor. I'll call it the children's crusade.? ...