The Quirks of Kurt

Even at first glance, the reader can tell that Slaughterhouse-Five is a typical work of Kurt Vonnegut. He uses dark humor and satire all throughout the text. Characters and events in Vonnegut’s books are often very similar to one another. In Slaughterhouse-Five, the first chapter is written in Vonnegut’s voice. He introduces his reasoning for the novel, his experiences of the firebombing of Dresden, and explains that the novel is written in a jumble because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.
Upon reading the second chapter, the reader is convinced the Slaughterhouse-Five is, indeed, written in a jumble. Vonnegut tends to break all the rules of writing, developing his very unique style. Vonnegut often seems to get off track by writing randomness about small details that he mentions, then continuing with what he was writing before. It is hard to tell, at times, if the information he is giving is crucial to the story or if it his humorous rubbish again. Nonetheless, he never fails to keep the reader hooked with every passing chapter until the novel’s end.
Slaughterhouse-Five, as explained in Chapter 1, was written as an anti-war book about the bombing of Dresden. Vonnegut is very blunt in his writings, as always. Upon reading, the audience is pulled into this piece of history, making them want to research the firebombing of Dresden themselves and compare it to Vonnegut’s explanation. While the copyright page warns readers not to, it is difficult not to view the protagonist Billy Pilgrim as Vonnegut himself. However, it is a complex process trying to analyze what is true in the story and what is Vonnegut’s quirky imagination.