Issues of the Contemporary World in Slaughterhouse Five Novel
Slaughterhouse Five, a beautifully written anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut, has been under fire by parents and teachers across America. Throughout the book, Vonnegut discusses the shocking truth in human nature by illustrating the world of Billy Pilgrim, a PTSD victim who suffers from recurring alien abductions. Many people oppose this book being taught in schools due to its graphic content; however, it should continue to be taught because it provides students with background that they would otherwise not receive. Slaughterhouse Five should be taught so students will know about the devastating effects of war rather than the glorified versions they see on television, so they are more familiar with the direction that the world is headed in, and because students are never given the opportunity to read books with actual meaning due to the social constraints imposed upon ourselves.
Slaughterhouse Five should be taught in schools across America so students will have a better understanding of the effects of war. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut illustrates the physical and mental destruction of the war by retelling the events of World War II through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim. Modern kids are unaware of the impact war can have because they have not had first-hand experience of one. Kids believe that they know everything about war, when really, they only know about the glorified versions seen on movies. To them, war is a time of valor and heroism, when in reality, war is a time of suffering and of constant fear of death. Along with the fear of life and physical pain, veterans also have to deal with mental fallout, such as Billy’s. “Billy’s condition is, on one level, a symbol of shock, confusion, and dislocation, and desire for escape that result from the horrible experiences of war” (Cox). This condition is referred to as post traumatic stress disorder, and it is a direct result of war. Although not directly expressed, it can easily be inferred that Billy suffers from this due to the recurrence of alien abductions. Billy may have been held captive at Dresden for a year, but he was held captive for life in his head. Students would not be able to relate to the pain and suffering without having heard first hand experience about one; ergo, this novel should be taught so they know just how devastating war can be and so they might try and prevent future ones from occurring.
Slaughterhouse Five should also be taught in schools across America because it gives perspective to the direction that the world is headed in. Every day without us even knowing, the world becomes darker and darker. “Vonnegut’s anti-war fiction illustrates war machine and time machine that produce thoughtless machine-like humans… Vonnegut’s dark picture criticizes our contemporary world and the devastative direction in which we are headed” (Babaee). This novel comments on cybernetic nature by suggesting that we are more like intelligent machine than we are human. We claim to adopt free will to justify our decisions, when in reality we feel helpless while making them. “America has adopted the Tralfamadorian philosophy which justified apathy. We have lost our sense of individuality; we feel powerless, helpless, and impotent. We consider ourselves the ‘listless playthings of enormous forces’” (Vanderwerken). Americans justify the suppression of emotion because they feel that life is pre-determined, just as the Tralfamadorians did, and that they can’t follow their own path but merely the path that has already been paved for them. This mentality is disastrous. The ability to think for oneself is what differentiates humans from machine, but by thinking that one cannot control their own decisions, they surrender the cybernetic system. The machine-like system responsible for dystopia in America is already omnipresent, we just have to be conscious not to be trapped in it. Students are most likely unaware of this, therefore, they should read this novel so they are familiar with the human behaviors that may one day be the bane of our contemporary existence.
Lastly, Slaughterhouse Five should be taught in schools across America because students are never presented with the opportunities to read books with actual meaning in class. The books we read in school are said to have application in the real world when in reality they only speak of nonsense that will most likely not be remembered years down the road. “The curriculum is arranged so the student never reads about drugs, liquor, love, or lIfe. This leaves him with pets and mountains. He can walk into a class on physics or math and expect to learn something real. But in English and social studies he encounters a never-never land in which the books have little relationship to life at the corner or life behind the barn” (Veix). Schools claim to prepare us for life, but the books they have us read do not reflect that. Ergo, Slaughterhouse Five should be taught because it allows students to see the dark side of life they will be forced to face rather than the wonderlands they were raised on. Vonnegut addresses war and alcohol throughout the entirety of the novel, and kids need to know about harsh topics such as these before entering the real world. The books already implemented in the curriculum only skip the surface of these topics, resulting in kids lacking depth of knowledge in areas that may at one point be crucial to their wellbeing.
Slaughterhouse Five is a great novel that illustrates the issues of the contemporary world. Kids everywhere are entering the real world without essential knowledge that could easily be taught in a book as such. It should be taught in schools across America so students will be more familiar with the devastating effects of war, so they know about the direction that the world is headed in, and so they can read a book that has actual meaning. Perhaps if this novel was taught with more rigor, students would not struggle with adversity as much as those in the past, and perhaps war may come to a halt.
