Slaughterhouse 5 essay

Nick Boone

Period 3

Mr. Cheng

2.8.2011

Slaughterhouse 5 Essay

            I think that the theme of Slaughterhouse 5 is war is horrific, but it is a part of life. There are several parts in Slaughterhouse 5 that show this. Like when, the Tralfamadorian’s tell Billy that even they have had war on their planet. Another part that shows this is the Bombing of Dresden. Thirdly, when Billy describes the Battle of the Bulge in the book.

            First off, when the Tralfamadorian’s say that even they have had war on their planet, that shows that war is a part of everyone’s life. "Billy's high forehead is in the cross hairs of a high powered laser gun. It is aimed at him from the darkened press box. In the next moment, Billy Pilgram is dead." But it is saying how even the Tralfamadorian’s even have war on their planet. So it’s everyone on Earth and other planets, we just have it in our DNA.

            Secondly the bombing of Dresden shows that war is horrific but it’s just a part of our life. “Where are you?” said Lily

“Dresden” replied Billy

“Dresden” Lily told Rumfoord

I think that this showing that Billy knows what is going to happen to Dresden very shortly, but he doesn’t want to tell anyone what is going to happen. So that shows that war is a part of our life and that there is no controlling it.

            Thirdly, when Billy describes the Battle of the Bulge. That shows some parts that war is nothing that we can control, and it’s going to happen regardless. “Anybody touches me, he better kill me, or I’m gonna have him killed.” I think that this shows that he is going to kill everyone until the day that he gets killed by a German during the war. Because he’s saying that if someone touches him, they better kill him or they’ll be killed by him. So I think that that just shows our nature of war is just in our nature and that it is horrific.