Dexter Walters
Professor M. Benton
ENG 102: Writing II
October 16, 2019
Surviving the Slaughterhouse: Vonnegut’s Coping Mechanism
My goal for this paper is to argue against the views of Lawrence
Broer, author of Sanity Plea:
Schizophrenia In the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut who believes that
schizophrenia influenced many of the themes in Vonnegut’s novels (Broer). In my
teenage years, I read many of Vonnegut’s novels. At the time I read Vonnegut’s
novels, I was very alone, alienated by choices of my family. It’s my belief
that Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse
Five and survivor of the bombing of Dresden was experiencing loneliness
himself. Vonnegut was a man that survived the improbable and his writing reflects
said fact. Vonnegut’s writing also reflect his beliefs. Slaughterhouse Five was Vonnegut’s first commercial success, and
cast his novels into the spotlight to enjoy today. Vonnegut famously went on to
state that the only person who benefitted from the bombing of Dresden was
himself, and that his book made about $2 - $3 per person who died in Dresden.
This loneliness and capitalization of death would also be enough to cause
mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, which is exactly what Lawrence
Broer, the author of Sanity Plea:
Schizophrenia In the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut believes (Broer). In addition,
many themes in Slaughterhouse Five would
support the presence of mental illness. However, I believe that the events of
Dresden affected Kurt Vonnegut, but didn’t cause any mental illness, or that if
they did, the mental illness didn’t affect Vonnegut’s writing to the drastic
degree that Broer believes it did (Broer). On the contrary, I believe that the
events in Dresden gave Vonnegut’s writing its edge, direction, and intelligence
it carries.
The first proposed indicator of mental illness in Vonnegut,
is the fragmented timeline throughout Slaughterhouse
Five. Throughout Slaughterhouse Five,
Billy Pilgrim doesn’t experience time in a sequential manner, nor does the
reader experience Slaughterhouse Five
sequentially. Instead, Slaughterhouse
Five seems to come to a middle, punctuated by the constant presence and
dismissal of life and death with the book’s signature phrase, “So it goes.”
Vonnegut seems to write about three timelines throughout Slaughterhouse Five. The first being Billy Pilgrim’s life before World
War II, and the bombing of Dresden. The pre-war timeline seems to be the least
detailed of them all, often only being introduced to provide comic relief or a
sudden change of tone. It makes sense that The pre-war timeline isn’t very
detailed. There’s not much for Pilgrim to share about his time before World War
II, since Slaughterhouse Five’s main
theme is anti-war. The second timeline detailed in Slaughterhouse Five is Pilgrim’s time in war. The war timeline is
the most flushed out and detailed of the timelines, as Slaughterhouse Five is centered around anti-war themes, and the
consequences of warfare. The last timeline is the post-war timeline, which is
easily the most disjointed and confusing of all three timelines, due to its
heavy focus on Tralfamadorians, the fictional alien race featured in Slaughterhouse Five. In addition, the post-war
timeline isn’t the centerpiece of Slaughterhouse
Five, the war timeline is. However, the post-war timeline is used
intermittently in the war timeline to sometime provide comic relief. In
addition, the normal everyday run-of-the-mill events of the post-war timeline
are also used contrast the strong war themes throughout Slaughterhosue Five.
The second proposed indication of mental illness in Vonnegut
would be the prominence of aliens in a story that is supposed to be somewhat
historical fiction. Throughout the story, the involvement of aliens constantly
interferes with the life of Billy Pilgrim, the story’s main protagonist. Due to
time being free-flowing for Pilgrim, he often knows of or predicts events that
have yet to happen. The first big major example of this in Slaughterhouse Five takes place right before Pilgrim is about to
get captured by the Tralfamadorians, when Pilgrim restlessly wakes up from
sleep, and awaits his capture from the aliens. In a weird turn of events,
Pilgrim knows about his capture, but doesn’t nothing to avoid or escape it. At
this point in the story, Pilgrim acts very much like the Tralfamadorians that
he’s consistently contrasted to. It’d be easy to mark down the aliens in Slaughterhouse Five as nothing but
schizophrenia fueled delusions, but I believe that they’re something more. As
stated in the into, at one point or another, you’ve felt alone due to the
experiences you’ve been though, which had changed the way Vonnegut viewed the
world, causing everyone else to seem like aliens to Vonnegut. Which is what I
believe the role of the Tralfamadorians is in Slaughterhouse Five. They’re a placeholder for other humans, humans
whose existence is based off of blissful ignorance. In one line from Slaughterhouse Five itself, a
Tralfamadorian says, “Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones”
(Vonnegut 150). Billy Pilgrim could only respond with, “Um” (Vonnegut 150).
This is further supported by how wildly the Tralfamadorian’s views are to those
of Pilgrim. This again, can be related to the beliefs of Vonnegut versus the
beliefs of what Vonnegut considers common people.
The third proposed indication of mental illness starts with
the beginning of Slaughterhouse Five,
specifically, as Billy Pilgrim is estranged behind German lines avoiding
capture. Pilgrim was accompanied by two scouts and an anti-tank gunner.
Throughout his trek behind enemy lines, Pilgrim constantly expresses his will
to be left behind to his companions. Pilgrim also goes as far to put himself in
harm’s way, once putting himself into the sights of an enemy sniper, attempting
to let the sniper shoot him. Pilgrim is even quoted to say, “You guys go on
without me (Vonnegut 43).” Later, when Pilgrim and his companions are captured
by the Germans, they were loaded into boxcars stationed on railroads. During
his journey, Pilgrim more emphatically expressed his will to die. To make
matters worse, Pilgrim was unable to sleep for most of his time in the boxcar. Willingness
to die and inability to sleep also seem like excellent signifiers of mental
illness. On the contrary, I interpret Pilgrim’s whole situation as a reflection
of Vonnegut’s journey back to a normal life. Vonnegut witnessed atrocities in Dresden, dug
up bodies, and was one of the few survivors of the Dresden bombing. Lack of
sleep is to be expected, but it’s also safe to say that Vonnegut could’ve been
experiencing some form of survivor’s guilt, caused by being one out of
thousands to survive a bombing that destroyed a peaceful and artistic city.
Here’s the closest I get to understanding Broer’s belief that Vonnegut is
suffering from schizophrenia. It is believable that schizophrenia could be
caused by survivor’s guilt and the constant presence of death. But, keeping
consistent with my central message, I still believe that Vonnegut uses Slaughterhouse Five as a coping method
to work through his experiences in Dresden. In addition, there’s the school of
thought that putting your problems down on paper helps people to work through
their problems. This is supported by the personal experience of working through
past problems by putting my troubled thoughts on paper, which served as a
medium to express frustrations that I felt I couldn’t confide in anyone else. Slaughterhouse Five server as Vonnegut’s
medium of expressing his troubled thoughts. But instead of hiding those
thoughts on a bookshelf in his room, Vonnegut shared his thoughts with the
world.
The last proposed indication of mental illness in Slaughterhouse Five is Vonnegut’s morbid
fascination with death, torture, and suffering throughout Slaughterhouse Five, punctuated with the consistent appearance and
dismissal of death, often presented un-impactful and practically meaningless,
with character deaths often being presented, detailed, and then dismissed
without a second thought. The best
example of this takes place in story of Edgar Derby, a character who was
introduced to take care of Billy Pilgrim after Pilgrim had a mental break.
Edgar Derby was presented as an intelligent and caring character, selflessly
volunteering his time to look after Pilgrim. However, the introduction of Derby
is finished by stating,
“…Edgar Derby, the high school teacher who would be shot to
death in Dresden. So it goes (Vonnegut 125).”
Derby’s death is developed further later in the book, when
it’s stated that Derby was shot to death by a firing squad. From a reader’s
standpoint Derby’s death is awful, but un-impactful. We as the reader never made the connection
with the character that was Edgar Derby, and any attempt to do so would be
meaningless since Derby’s death was introduced just after the character was
introduced. Vonnegut made sure that there was no connection to be had, just as
he likely avoided making connections with people during his service. The
imminence of death, torture, and suffering made it very costly to get attached
to people. Care was a commodity in World War II, and Vonnegut wanted to waste
none of it, for his own sanity. Vonnegut isn’t stating that he doesn’t care
about people in warfare, but instead, he’s stating that he cares too much to
get involved. Vonnegut is showing that everyone is a victim of war, whether
it’s the citizens of Dresden, soldiers on the battlefield, or high school
teacher looking after a mentally broken soldier. This idea is expanded upon
when Billy Pilgrim details the death of Edgar Derby to his then wife, Valencia
Merble. When Pilgrim is recalling the story, he’s reluctant to tell the story,
reflecting how Vonnegut feels about the deaths of his friends throughout the
war. Again, Vonnegut is contrasted to the typical person through Pilgrim and
Merble. Pilgrim views the World War II as an awful tragedy that he barely
survived, while Merble views World War II in an almost romanticized manner,
eagerly pressing Pilgrim for more events and details (Vonnegut 155). This
concept is further supported by the preceding sexual intercourse Pilgrim and
Merble engaged in, furthering the concept that death, torture, and suffering is
romanticized by the general public, in Vonnegut’s opinion.
I hope that I’ve shown enough evidence to show that Kurt
Vonnegut’s writing doesn’t originate out of mental illness, but instead out of
intelligence honed and sharpened by his life’s experiences. At the end of the
day, Slaughterhouse Five is an
anti-war book at its core, not a pleading for help. Vonnegut writes to make
points, challenge views, share his beliefs, and to share his absurd sense of
humor based on his life. If anything, Slaughterhouse
Five is not a call for help, it’s a coping mechanism. Vonnegut’s novel is
one of the most honest and truest experiences and retellings of a warfare
experience. It’s even more fortunate that we as the readers are able to
experience such an honest and true retelling of warfare. Lastly, the most
fortunate thing is that Vonnegut rose to his stardom when he did, allowing
readers around the world to experience warfare in a new light, one where the
main character isn’t a killing machine that regrets what he’s done, but
instead, an unwilling advocate to death. In Slaughterhouse
Five, Vonnegut also expresses his fear of never being discovered through
another one of his characters, Kilgore Trout. In Vonnegut’s novel, Kilgore
Trout is said to have great novel ideas, but terrible prose and execution, which
is exactly any writer would fear for their own works. One of the opening lines
of Slaughterhouse Five states, “I
would hate to tell you what this lousy little book cost me in money and anxiety
and time” (Vonnegut 2), implying that Vonnegut worked through his experiences
in Dresden through writing Slaughterhouse
Five.
Broer, Lawrence R.. Sanity Plea : Schizophrenia In the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut, University of Alabama Press, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bluegrasskctcs-ebooks/detail.action?docID=547634.
Tally, R. (2013). Kurt Vonnegut.
Ipswich, Mass: Salem Press.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dial Press Trade Paperback, 1999. Print.
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