How War Leads to Destruction in Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut

Introduction

“Peace is a road to happiness and the future. War is a road to destruction and death.” - Debasish Mridha. It is well known that conflict between different nations or states demolishes your own nation, affects the development of the economy, and takes away the lives of innocent individuals. Billy Pilgrim, as a soldier in World War II, has gone through war and has experienced similar events that have significantly affected his entire life. In Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy had no answers; he was shaken by this devastating event. This essay will focus on the bombing of Dresden and how “War Leads to Destruction.”

The Journey of Billy Pilgrim

Throughout this book, Billy Pilgrim is shown traveling to the Dresden bombing, back to his birthplace, and to the planet Tralfamadore in an inconsistent order. Firstly, the innocent community and residents of Dresden were harmed in the bombing. Billy stated that Dresden looked like the surface of the moon, “Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 179). This was due to the destruction the allied forces had caused with the bomb, taking many lives of unwanted and guiltless human beings that were not supposed to be taken. In addition, prisoners of war from many lands came together to help with the digging of dead bodies, as quoted, “Began the first corpse mine in Dresden” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 214). Billy and other war prisoners helped to clean up the remains of Dresden and more than 25,000 people who died there. Billy observes the sadistic and cruel nature of the globe once the city gets bombed. To add more, it was said in the book that the “bodies were liquefied, and the stink was like mustard and roses gas” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 214). This vivid imagery allows the reader to almost smell the horrific scene themselves.

War's Impact on the Innocent

Also, Billy encounters the Dresden bombing with acknowledgment and unhappiness instead of aggression and pain. Never in this novel was Billy seen to be in pain or aggressive with anything. As Vonnegut points out, “135,000 people died as the result of an air attack with conventional weapons” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 188). If hundreds of thousands of faultless people died, imagine how many people were injured during this horrific event, just like Billy, and how it is a significant event that has impacted his life ever since. This connects to the theme “War Leads to Destruction” because Dresden was left demolished; many faultless individuals lost their lives, leaving the city unable to recover, affecting their economy deeply. One of the book's most popular lines is “So it goes,” stated whenever a biotic thing died. It makes him able to forgive anyone, and he never appears to become angry throughout the novel, proving himself as acceptive and deeply passive. The quotation “So it goes” was stated by Tralfamadorians whenever they saw a corpse; they were described as “they were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber’s friends” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 27). To them, death is simply a foul condition at a specific moment in one's existence. Billy Pilgrim currently views death in identical means, likely because he learned from them when the aliens took him to Tralfamadore to exhibit him in a zoo. “I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes’” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 27). This statement was mostly on every other page, popped up a lot. This proves that there were a lot of killings and destruction moments, clearly linking to the thesis “War leads to Destruction.”

The Emotional Aftermath

The destruction has left a deep cut in Billy’s psyche. “Father, Father, Father- said Barbara, What are we going to do with you? Are you going to force us to put you where your mother is?” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 268). Billy’s own daughter Barbara was tired of his craziness; everyone was. So she was warning him to be put where his mother was, in an old people’s home called Pine Knoll. Barbara even states that her father Billy is crazy about his stuff, “It’s all just crazy” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 268). “He has seen his birth and death many times, he says, and pays random visits to all the events in between” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 29). When the world is quiet enough for birds to be heard, Billy knows that the war is over, and peace has returned. That is when he hears a bird “One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, ‘Poo-tee-weet?’” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 275).

The Quiet Aftermath

Once again, everything is quiet enough for birds to be heard, as quoted on page 19 in chapter one, “It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?’” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 19). To add more, the author had foreshadowed how the book was going to end when Billy quoted, “It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet?” (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 275). This quotation explains how, at the end of every massacre, you are able to hear the sound of birds tweeting. This ties into the theme “War leads to Destruction” because war has to end someday, and that day is filled with peace and silence.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is now without a doubt known that “War Leads to Destruction.” The impacts of war on both the physical landscape and the human psyche are immense and leave lasting scars, as demonstrated through the experiences of Billy Pilgrim and the destruction of Dresden. The novel Slaughterhouse-Five serves as a poignant reminder of the cost of war and the enduring hope for peace.

References

• Vonnegut, K. (1969). Slaughterhouse-Five. Delacorte Press.