Slaughterhouse-Five Rhetorical Analysis

Vonnegut use of existentialist detachment can be used to describe the tone of Slaughterhouse-Five. The novel is fragmented into miniscule sections. The majorities of these sections is rather thrilling and contain much action, thus the narrator does not give himself ample room to become emotional regarding the events he is concerning. Therefore, it is difficult to understand what type of emotional meaning the narrator is endeavoring to communicate. The narrator detaches himself from events, then, does not get emotional, consequently the novel is spoken in a straightforward means. Nonetheless, the narrator’s depictions of the terrors of war are vivid. He is illustrating appalling events that have vast significance for him individually. Although,

The narrator infrequently states openly: this sucks. However, he indicates that it does. From experiences in the war, Vonnegut has learned that death is something he cannot cease. He has understood that “even if wars didn’t keep coming like glaciers, there would be plain old death” (4). The moral shown by Vonnegut agrees that some things are out of man’s control, however there are things man are able to alter. Therefore, this contradicts Billy’s and the Tralfmadorians, the aliens who have abducted Billy, view that free will is imaginary. After anyone or anything dies, Vonnegut always writes, ‘so it goes’ which is intended to satirize the disregard for the significance of death. For example, “There were hundreds of corpse mines operating by and by. They didn't smell bad at first, were wax museums. But then the bodies rotted and liquefied, and the stink was like roses and mustard gas. So it goes." (214). There are no adjectives in this passage, nothing like "terrible" or "frightening”. In spite of that, simultaneously, since there is slight emotional description, the general effect of the scene appears far greater than one would imagine from such a concise