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Slaughterhouse V -1

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Why Write the author in the text. Views of Life So it goes. Kurt ... of war during the Battle of the Bulge (the last offensive on Germany's part) on ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Slaughterhouse V -1


1
Slaughterhouse V -1
  • Why Write?

2
Outline
  • General Introduction
  • Starting Questions on Chapter 1
  • Chapter I
  • Frames
  • Why Write the author in the text
  • Views of Life So it goes

3
Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - )
  • The author in SH-V.
  • Joined WWII, became a prisoner of war during the
    Battle of the Bulge (the last offensive on
    Germanys part) on December 14, 1944, and sent to
    Dresden.
  • Studied anthropology in the University of
    Chicago, but his thesis was rejected.
  • Became a writer since, published
    Slaughterhouse-Five in 1968 (the peak of anti-war
    movement), which made him successful and a guru
    figure in post-60s literary field.

4
Slaughterhouse-Five--Background
  • Dresden Bombing
  • Dresden -- "Florence on the Elbe"
  • February 13 14, 1945
  • estimated deaths 130,000 to 250,000, almost all
    of them civilians.
  • Part of a massive attack coded as Thunderclap,
    which targeted the German cities of Berlin,
    Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz.
  • Irony Dresden is not a strategic point (no
    factories, no railways, bridges, etc, but a lot
    POWs) ? meaninglessness

5
Slaughterhouse-Five--Plot
  • Time Traveling --
  • Four segments of Billy Pilgrims
  • 1922 - his childhood,
  • 1944 - his World War II years,
  • 1968 - his postwar life as a family man and
    optometrist in New York,
  • his capture by aliens who come from the planet
    Tralfamadore

6
Starting Questions
  • Why does the author discuss how he gets to
    write this novel?
  • What views of the war, history and life does he
    introduces here?

7
Chapter I the Frame of the Story
  • the author in the novel
  • Makes claim to reality p. 1
  • Discusses
  • his inability to write
  • How the novel is prepared for
  • Dresden in context

8
Why write
  • For writing
  • Dresden, worse than Hiroshima, but not much
    publicity p. 10
  • Obsessed (as telephoners, but his memory
    useless p. 13-14 ? repetitions as nonsense or
    false starts (or rhymes p. 7 of names p. 4 so
    it goes)
  • Against writing
  • anti-war being anti-glacier, or anti-death 3-4
  • OHares wife books encouraging wars 15
  • Lots wife looking back

9
Preparation Exposing the Frames
  • 1. the title decided, Childrens Crusade 15 and
    research
  • arranging climax and plots p. 5
  • to the publisher 19 nothing intelligent to say
    about a massacre

10
Historical Perspectives
  • Childrens Crusade --sold as slaves p.16
  • The seige of Dresden in 1760
  • History is not progressive
  • Is it linear?

11
Life as a Dark comedy
  • Self-Belittling the authors life after the war
    //Yon Yonson 2-3, 7, 11 (//Billy Pilgrim)
  • Lifes transience -- So it Goes
  • as a reporter 9 -So it goes. ? News medias
    indifference
  • (later) airplane crash, and the wifes car
    accident 25)?lice, champaign 84 73
  • if the accident will. p. 2

12
Life as Presented by Commercial Culture
  • P. 18 Worlds Fair in NY Three Musketeers candy
    bar
  • More next time

13
Characters (mentioned so far)
  • Views of people no difference? P. 8
  • Bernard V. O'Hare
  • Edgar Derby
  • Roland Weary
  • Paul Lazarro
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