Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

He read some books and the tale of Lot from the Bible.

Vonnegut's flight to Frankfurt was delayed and he had to spend a night in a motel. He had found out that the bombing of Dresden was still officially Top Secret.O'Hare's wife was very unfriendly, because she thought that Vonnegut intended to write a book glorifying the war, but when she was told what kind of book it would be, she changed her attitude completely. So, in order to refresh his memories, Vonnegut went to Pennsylvania to visit an old comrade, called O'Hare. After the Second World War he thought it would be easy to write a book about the bombing of Dresden, an anti-war book, but he never succeeded. He is taken to the slaughterhouse, where he had been locked up as a prisoner of war. In 1967 Vonnegut visits Dresden, which looks like an American city. The other events take place in the United States and on a fictitious planet called Trafalmadore. His war experiences take place in Luxemburg and Germany.

During Billy's time-travelling the rest of the story of Billy's life is told. Billy Pilgrim's war experiences lead up to this destruction. The bombing of Dresden took place on February 14, 1945. In Chapter 10 Vonnegut speaks to the reader again, and his story and Billy Pilgrim's merge into one.

Billy's thoughts, however, only register facts and are unable to work out the terrible implications of these facts. Then follows the story of Billy Pilgrim told from the point of view of Billy. In Chapter I Vonnegut speaks directly to the reader, giving some autobiographical details and explaining what he intends to do. The science fiction elements express the idea that man will not be able to change his ways, that everything is predetermined, and that war will be a lasting element of life. The novel also contains autobiographical passages and science fiction elements.The autobiographical passages are used as a framework within which the story of Billy Pilgrim takes place. He wanted to show that war turns human beings into inhuman creatures, who are no longer sensitive to horror and ugliness and who are unable to change what they consider to be the course of fate. Vonnegut's purpose was to write an anti-war novel.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.