Slaughterhouse-Five The Novel and the Movie Essay examples

Slaughterhouse-Five: The Novel and the Movie In 1972 director George Roy Hill released his screen adaptation of Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five (or The Childrens Crusade; A Duty Dance With Death). The film made over 4 million dollars and was touted as an artistic success by Vonnegut (Film Comment, 41). In fact, in an interview with Film Comment in 1985, Vonnegut called the film a flawless translation of his novel, which can be considered an honest assessment in light of his reviews of other adaptations of his works: Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) turned out so abominably that he asked to have his name removed from it; and he found Slapstick of Another Kind (1984) to be†¦show more content†¦Slaughterhouse-Five has two narrators, an impersonal one and a personal one, resulting in a novel not only about Dresden but also about the actual act of writing a novel - in this case a novel about an event that has shaped the author profoundly. The novels themes of cruelty, innocence, free will, regeneration, survival, time, and war recur throughout Vonneguts novels, as do some of his characters, which are typically caricatures of ideas with little depth. Another mainstay is his use of historical and fictional sources, and yet another is his preference for description over dialogue. These aspects of Vonneguts literary style make the adaptation of Vonnegut to the screen all the more difficult. Ironically, many Vonnegut novels flow with a cinematic fluidity. As described in Film Comment, Vonneguts literary vocabulary has included the printed page equivalents of jump-cuts, montages, fades, and flashbacks. And his printed pace even feels filmic, as he packs his scenes tightly together, butting them against each other for maximum, often jarring, effect (42). Slaughterhouse-Five, as the title page points out, is written by a fourth-generation German-American who fought as an American infantry scout and who as a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden ... and survived to tell the tale. It is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic mannerShow MoreRelatedThe Madness of War1458 Words   |  6 Pagesprisoner of war during World War II inspired his critically hailed novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), in which characters continually search for meaning in the aftermath of mankind’s irrational cruelty (Kurt Vonnegut: 1922-2007 287). Both the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and Vonnegut have been in Dresden for the firebombing, and that is what motivates their narrative (Klinkowitz 335). In his anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut expresses the adverse emotional effects of war throughRead MoreSatire in Slaughterhouse Five Essay862 Words   |  4 PagesIn Slaughterhouse Five, Vonn egut uses satire in the topics of war, aliens, fate and the reasons for life itself. In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the author uses many literary devices to bring across his point including black humor, irony, wit and sarcasm. He mainly uses satire throughout the book. Satire is a literary device found in works of literature that uses irony and humor to mock social convention, another work of art, or anything its author thinks ridiculous to make a point. VonnegutRead MoreGeorge Roy Hills Movie Adaptation of Kurt Vonneguts Slaughter-House Five1100 Words   |  5 PagesGeorge Roy Hills movie adaptation of Kurt Vonneguts novel Slaughter-house Five is a fairly accurate version that stays relatively close to Vonneguts own vision. Throughout Vonnegut novel Billy Pilgrim, a WWII soldier who was captured by the Germans and held captive as an American POW (prisoner of war), demonstrates several extreme compulsive tendencies due to the horrific events he witnessed as an American POW victim. After reading of Billy’s experiences, I did not have faith in the movies abilityRead MoreA Sardonic Novel, Kurt Vonnegut’s â€Å"Slaughterhouse Five736 Words   |  3 PagesKurt Vonnegut’s â€Å"Slaughterhouse Five† is a sardonic novel chronicling the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran, survivor of the Dresden firebombing, and protagonist of the novel. Billy is a very unreliable narrator who has become â⠂¬Å"unstuck in time†. Billy is constantly journeying through time; at one moment he’s a flourishing optometrist and the next he’s a prisoner of war in Germany. Billy is forced to deal with an existential crisis presented forth by the great destruction he witnessesRead MoreAn Opinion Without Context. Whenever Observing Anything,1733 Words   |  7 PagesObserving a movie, without knowing when, where, and why it was created means it will not contain the same impact as it might otherwise. Take the Japanese film Gojira, which when originally created was an absolute scathing message regarding the effects of nuclear warfare, but observed by a non-native audience, the film ceases to be a message and starts to appear as a simple film about gigantic monsters. This phenomenon is as observable with Slaughterhouse Five as any other form of media. Slaughterhouse FiveRead MoreEssay on Kurt Vonnegut’s novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five1365 Words   |  6 PagesVonnegut’s novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five demonstrate the ineptness of the human race to base our life and happiness off of intricate and interwoven lies, or off of a single point of view. Kurt Vonnegut was born in the United States, Indianapolis, however he was sent to Europe to fight in the â€Å"Battle of the Bulge† in December 1944, as a battalion scout. He was taken prisoner and transported to Dresden, Germany; here he was held in an abandoned meat locker below a slaughterhouse. VonnegutRead MoreWar is Inevitable and Death is Too1111 Words   |  5 PagesKurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is a satire on the behaviors of man. Often characterized as an anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five tries to show that war and destruction are a part of the human life cycle. Humanity is highly conflict prone; conflict resolution often manifests itself in the terms of war. Vonnegut attempts to show that war results in widespread death and destruction; therefore, war and death are inevitable. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut explores the inevitability ofRead More Comic and Tragic Elements in Kurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse Five1485 Words   |  6 PagesComi c and Tragic Elements in Slaughterhouse Five    Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is the tale of a World War II soldier, Billy Pilgrim. His wartime experiences and their effects lead him to the ultimate conclusion that war is unexplainable. To portray this effectively, Vonnegut presents the story in two dimensions: historical and science-fiction. The irrationality of war is emphasized in each dimension by contrasts in its comic and tragic elements. The historical seriousnessRead MoreKurt Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five Essay1311 Words   |  6 Pagesand five scouts were caught behind enemy lines, and then captured. They were held POWs and were beaten on various occasions. In 1945, they witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Kept during this time in a slaughterhouse, this is part of the inspiration for Slaughterhouse-five. After being released from the Slaughterhouse, Vonnegut called Dresden â€Å"utter destruction† and â€Å"carnage unfathomable†. This distressing time in his life led to one of the many themes of Slaughterhouse-five whichRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut Essay1560 Words   |  7 Pageswith his mother (notable biographies). After attending Cornell University Vonnegut enlisted into World War II. His experiences in World War II shaped his anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five was published â€Å"during the peak of protest against American involvement in the Vietnam war† (Notable Biographies). Slaughterhouse-Five appears to be semi autobiographical because it includes events that Vonnegut himself experienced, but is written instead about a character named Billy Pilgrim.