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Lauren Cavagnini

Grubb

AP Lang

4/13/17

The Inspiration of Slaughterhouse Five

Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt is quite an ironic statement to hear coming

from Kurt Vonnegut in regards to his life (Vonnegut). His journey left him a man weathered

under adversaries, which inspired beautiful writings full of black humor, heavy satire, and

lessons that carry powerful truths. Vonneguts writing came from the influence of a challenging

childhood, his experiences as a soldier in World War Two, and the presence of a new battle

plaguing the American people.

Vonneguts writing predominantly carries a dark and satirical tone to it, which is said to

[have] its roots in his parents...response to the [Great] Depression (Allen). With his father

turning to alcohol and his mother becoming more distant, Vonneguts pessimistic view of the

world emerged from a scarred childhood. He began writing in high school for the student paper,

and was influenced by the journalism method of [getting]get the facts right,

[composing]compose straightforward declarative sentences, [and knowing]know the audience.

In 1944, tragedies in his life only stronger influenced his satirical works with his mothers

suicide by drug overdose (Allen). In the following months, the events that directly inspired his

novel would transcend.

VonnegutKurt entered World War Two in 1945, where he was soon apprehended as a

prisoner of war. He was kept in the German city of Dresden in an abandoned slaughterhouse.

This prison underground became a protector for him and his fellow prisoners during the Dresden
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firebomb attacks that killed sixty thousand civilians. After the attacks he was forced onto a clean-

up crew where he sorted through the tragic and appalling remains of what was formerly Dresden.

These experiences became the focal point for Slaughterhouse Five, but later conflicts in the

United States would help inspire him to express his hatred of war in the novel.

Vonnegut published Slaughterhouse Five in 1969. At this time, the United States was

involved in the Vietnam conflict, which required thousands of drafted soldiers and cost many of

them their lives. The Anti-War sentiment was growing with the emergence of the New Left

political group and the hippie counterculture. Both groups, but especially the New Left, were

becoming extremely influential, organizing protests, [burn[ing] their draft cards, and overall

denouncing the war and what it stood for, especially since the horrors of the Vietnam War were

being televised for the entire country to witness (Henretta). Vonneguts novel contributed to anti-

war literature that began to emerge. His book carries strong themes negating violence and war by

recounting the horrors faced by those caught in the middle and the impacted by them,

contributing in the form of a novel to the anti-war sentiment of the times.

Allen, William Rodney. "A Brief Biography of Kurt Vonnegut." Kurt Vonnegut

Museum Library. Accessed

16 Apr. 2017.

Boomhower, Ray. "Kurt Vonnegut." We Do History, Indiana Historical Society, 1999.

Accessed 16 Apr.

2017.

Henretta, James A. America's History For The AP Course. 8th ed. Boston: College

Board, 2014. Print.

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