The Violence of Warfare and Traumatic Experiences in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Authors

  • Khals Mala Raparin University, Iraq
  • Soran Abdulrahman Tishk International University, Iraq
  • Bülent Tanrıtanır Van-Yuzuncu Yil University, Turkey

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v2i2.33

Keywords:

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, Violence of War, Traumatic Experience

Abstract

Slaughterhouse-five is Kurt Vonnegut's breakthrough novel that was published in 1969. It is based on his own Second World War experience in Dresden. It is, in general, an anti-war book and is primarily concerned with free will and warfare. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate the violence of warfare and traumatic experience, and the main focus is on Billy and Vonnegut. In conclusion, Vonnegut's incapability to live an everyday life is under the effect of the violence, massacres, and traumatic experience that he has seen in the Second World War. The traumatic experience Billy has seen on the battlefield is mainly reflected in his hallucination to viewing past and future. They have made him think that there is no difference between being alive or dead, because those who died have been rescued from their bad memories of warfare, but he dies a hundred times in his life. Vonnegut wants to confirm that wars destroyed humanity physically, mentally, and psychologically since in addition to the millions of killed and injured people in the massacres of the battlefield, even the survivals have psychologically become dead with terrible and merciless views of the memories of warfare.

References

Al-Ma'ani, R. A. (2014). The First Person's Futile Search for Meaning in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 4(2). Retrieved from http://www.aijcrnet.com/journals/Vol_4_No_2_February_2014/4.pdf

Allen, W. R., & Vonnegut, K. (1988). Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut. University Press of Mississippi.

Bloom, H. (2009). Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations). Chelsea House Publications.

Bly, W. (1985). Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (Barron's Book Notes). Barron's Educational Series.

Davis, T. F (2006). Kurt Vonnegut's Crusade, or, how a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism. Albany: State U of New York.

Diwany, E., & Khalil, F. (2014). So it goes: A postmodernist reading of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. International Journal of English and Literature, 5(4), 82–90. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijel2013.0548

Işık, O. (2016). Creating a planet: A new-historical study on Slaughterhouse-Five. Pamukkale University Journal of Social Sciences Institute, 2016(50), 357–365. https://doi.org/10.5505/pausbed.2016.57689

McArdle, K. A. (2015). Poo-tee-weet? Unintelligent things to say about a massacre: Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and US interventions in the post-WWII era. Honors Scholar Theses. 427. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/427

Marvin, T. F. (2002). Kurt Vonnegut: A critical companion. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Mustazza, L. (Ed.). (2010). Critical insights: Slaughterhouse-Five. Salem Press.

Tang, J. (2011). Innocence: A bittersweet medicine in Slaughterhouse-Five. English Language and Literature Studies, 1(2), 55.

Tomedi, J. (2004). Kurt Vonnegut. Chelsea House Publishers.

Vonnegut, K. (1991). Slaughterhouse-Five, or, the children's crusade: A duty dance with death. 1969. London: Vintage.

Downloads

Published

2022-03-01

How to Cite

Mala, K., Abdulrahman, S., & Tanrıtanır, B. (2022). The Violence of Warfare and Traumatic Experiences in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Canadian Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 2(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v2i2.33

Issue

Section

Articles