The Dresden Bombing In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

The setting plays a powerful and constant reminder to the reader of the consequences of the human condition. Slaughterhouse Five, taking place around WWII involves many places, one main one being Dresden. It is seen by many as one of the greatest man made disasters in history and was oddly caused by allied forces. As horrible as it might be, Kurt Vonnegut says at the beginning of his book that “I thought, too, that [the book about Dresden] would be a masterpiece―But not many words about Dresden came from my mind then ― And not many come to mind now…” (Vonnegut 2). Having forgotten one of the most important parts of his life, it hints at how pointless war is and how something as big as Dresden can be forgotten as time goes on.

The risk and desperation of the “bad guys” can be seen in both as can similarities between the actual attack. Both the Japanese fleet of airships and Jack’s cordon swept the island in a line. The last similarity being the end result. Neither Jack nor the Japanese could pull off a victory against their enemy. The well known concentration camps and bombing of Pearl Harbor as well as the less well know Rape of Nanking need to be seriously considered because the disgusting crimes on humanity must never occur again.

As World War II was coming to an end, the U.S. was searching for a way to finish the war with Japan. The U.S. went about doing this by first dropping 2,000 tons of flammable bombs on Tokyo, Japan on March 9th, 1945. As a result of these fire bombings, between 80,000 to 130,000 innocent Japanese civilians were killed, which was the worst single firestorm in history. After this overwhelming event occurred, Japan didn’t chose to surrender unconditionally; however, the U.S. was well aware that Japan was already largely defeated due to the fire bombings. The U.S. was ready to potentially invade Japan, but an invasion of Japan couldn’t begin for another three months, so the U.S. had an opportunity to wait and see if Japan would surrender before

The news believes that they hold an obligation to cover these stories as part of their public service, but they do not realize that less is more. With their over televised reports of these shootings, the news is not only covering them they are influencing more. During the American Revolution, the German writer Goethe wrote “The Sorrows of Young Werther”. It grew in popularity and became the Catcher in the Rye of its day. Readers wrote parodies of the book, dressed as Werther, and some even committed suicide just like him.

For example, that visual image by Rob Rogers shows me that even the U.S. citizens felt that the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima, Japan was too much and not called for. After the Pearl Harbor bombing, the U.S. wanted revenge on Japan so they unleashed a nuclear bomb which killed millions more in Japan compared to the casualties in Pearl Harbor. The book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee shows many examples of why revenge and hatred should never be justified. First of all, Bob Ewell is a great example of why you must control your

Peace talks after peace talks and nothing seemed to fix the needs of the coalitions that were fighting. It was not till the constant threatening and ultimately acting of Unrestricted U-boat Warfare of the Germans that thrusted the Americans into war. One of the best quotes in the entire book that the authors using was from the declaration of war by President Wilson, after he declared war and stated that the reason that the United States was going to war to make the “world be must be made safe for democracy”. After the Congress applauded Wilson’s message, he stated to his secretary, “My message today was a message of death for our young men. How strange it seems to applaud that.” Even after the declaration of war you can still she hesitation in mind of Wilson here in this

In the short story, “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien focuses on this to show that everyone fighting in a war has a story. He spends the story describing the man he killed and searching for justification of his actions. He carries around guilt with him because of it, and his fellow soldiers try to help him justify and come to terms with his action by saying things like, “You want to trade places with him? Turn it all upside down= you want that? I mean, be honest,” (126) and “Tim, it’s a war.

Such as in Goodbye Darkness there were sometimes where Manchester brought humor or was not all serious such as when he talked about sex and his virginity. In Slaughterhouse 5, even though it is seen as a fantasy novel there are parts in this novel that displays facts and Vonnegut’s memoir. He talks about all the dreadful things that he had experience and how much of a tragedy the bombing of Dresden was. Even though Goodbye darkness is seen as a dark memoir and Slaughterhouse 5 is seen as a science-fiction novel both authors founds their own ways in dealing with the war. The war affected them in different ways causing them to have post-traumatic stress disorder which affects a lot of soldiers and being able to explain their experiences through different views can also open up different views for others.

Most of Vonnegut’s books carry a theme of peace, probably because of Vonnegut’s experiences in the war. Slaughterhouse-Five describes the death and destruction of the Dresden bombings not as a necessary war tactic (although mentioned as such later in the book), but a horrifying event that affected too many innocent people. Slaughterhouse-Five acts as a different point of view on the war, not just highlighting the glory of it all. By illustrating the Dresden bombings in such a personal manner, Vonnegut lays down an underlying warning against

The atomic bombs dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unjustified and their effects are inexcusable. Not only did the bombings kill hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, but they also set the nuclear arms race into motion. Maybe it would have been worth it to end the war, but these bombs did no such thing. Supporters of the bombing say the loss of Japanese lives was worth ending the war and saving thousands of allies’

(“Germans invade Poland”) America decided to sit on the sidelines while the war was fought because of the previous war that accomplished nothing at all and costed many american lives. After most of Europe was destroyed by germany, Japan decided it need to expand its territory. After launching a surprise attack on the us Pearl harbor naval base America entered the war against Japan and the Natzis. One of the many ways the major world war 2

Mohammad 's symbolic life as a terrorist could be taken from his thought, “I am an American enemy.” which indicates assures his stoic enmity against the mission of the United States. He confidently goes on conforming his terrorist activity in the September killings where thousands of innocent people lost their lives. But, he clams no heroism for his indiscriminately destructive campaign. In the U.S.A. he repeatedly praise “the Language of War is Killing” to show his disagreement with America. According to the dream of Mohammad the war between American and the Arab world will go on until the U.S.A withdraws from the his land.