What is the message of Slaughterhouse-Five?

The destructiveness of war is the major theme of Slaughterhouse-Five. The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim and other characters like Paul Lazzaro, Bernard O’ Harry and including the writer suffer from physical as well as psychological devastation caused by the war.

What did Vonnegut mean by so it goes?

Netti Vonnegut’s parents were German. Translated literally into German, “So it goes” is “So geht’s” – and that is a very, very, common phrase to comment fatalistically on things one can’t change or can’t prevent to happen. “That’s life”.

What does the five mean in Slaughterhouse-Five?

Cultural and historical allusions. Slaughterhouse-Five makes numerous cultural, historical, geographical, and philosophical allusions. It tells of the bombing of Dresden in World War II, and refers to the Battle of the Bulge, the Vietnam War, and the civil rights protests in American cities during the 1960s.

What does the title Slaughterhouse 5 mean?

So Slaughterhouse-Five is: (a) where Billy Pilgrim, the main character, winds up during the war; (b) figuratively, what war is; and (c) where Kurt Vonnegut, author, actually spent several months at the end of World War II.

Why is Slaughterhouse-Five a failure?

Slaughterhouse is a failure because it yearns for, even demands, something that it knows is impossible. That ineffable desire in the face of inevitable loss is a quintessentially human act.

Why does Vonnegut repeat the line so it goes after every mention of death in the novel?

Billy appreciates the simplicity of the Tralfamadorian response to death, and every time he encounters a dead person, he “simply shrug[s]” and says “so it goes.” The repetition of this phrase also illustrates how war desensitizes people to death, since with each passive mention of “so it goes,” the narrator is subtly …

What does the slaughterhouse symbolize?

The slaughterhouse is also a metaphorical place. One of the great instances of situational irony in the novel is how Billy survives the bombing in a slaughterhouse, a place where animals are killed, while those outside of the slaughterhouse are, in fact, the ones slaughtered.

Why does Billy cry about the horses?

The Horses The animals are desperately thirsty, and in their travel across the ashy rubble of Dresden, their hooves have cracked and broken so that every step is agony. The horses are nearly mad with pain. Billy weeps for the first and last time during the war at the sight of these poor, abused animals (9.19-20).

Does Vonnegut believe in free will?

Over and over again, Vonnegut proclaims that there is no such thing as free will. Humankind is the slave of predestination, meaning that all human actions are prescribed before they occur. A person who chooses to do something is not really choosing at all — the choice is already made.