Transcript Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
Notes
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Vonnegut Videos
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Daily Show (2005) (6 min)
 http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-september-
13-2005/kurt-vonnegut
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Vonnegut’s guest spot in Back to School (language)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnAhSzb4gY&feat
ure=PlayList&p=2A56A13BA04A57B7&playnext_from
=PL&index=11
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Vonnegut Timeline
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1940 Enrolls at Cornell University as a biochemistry major. Contributes to the
Cornell Sun as managing editor and columnist.
1943 March. Enlists in United States Army. Sent to Carnegie Institute and University
of Tennessee for training in mechanical engineering.
1944 May 14. Edith Lieber Vonnegut, mother, commits suicide.
December 22. Vonnegut captured during the Battle of the Bulge while a battalion
scout with the 106 Infantry Division.
1945 February 13. Dresden, Germany bombed killing 135,000 citizens. Vonnegut
and fellow Allied POWs take shelter in an underground meatlocker, the basis of
Slaughterhouse-Five.
April. Soviet troops occupy Dresden.
May 22. Vonnegut released to return to the U.S. Awarded the Purple Heart.
August 6. U.S. bombs Hiroshima with the planet's first display of atomic weapons
killing 71,379 people.
September 1. Marries high school classmate Jane Marie Cox whom he first met in
kindergarten.
December. Enrolls in University of Chicago's M.A. program in anthropolgy. Works as
a reporter for the Chicago City News Bureau.
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WWII vs. Vietnam
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Who or what was the “enemy”?
What was the reaction to each war on the home
front?
How was reporting different between the two wars?
How were Vets treated after they returned home
from war?
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Tim O’Brien
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Post-modern writer in a post-modern world
Though against the war, he reported for duty when
drafted
From February 1969 to March 1970 he served as
infantryman with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, after
which he pursued graduate studies in government at
Harvard University. He worked as a national affairs
reporter for The Washington Post from 1973 to
1974.
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O’Brien “How to Tell a True War Story”
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“In any war story, but especially a true one,
it’s difficult to separate what happened from
what seemed to happen. What seems to
happen becomes its own happening and has
to be told that way. The angles of vision are
skewed. When a booby trap explodes, you
close your eyes and duck and float outside
yourself.”
Slaughterhouse-Five
WWII History: Bombing death tolls
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Nagasaki & Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29
bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the
Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city
and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later
die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped
another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's
Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender in World
War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of "a
new and most cruel bomb."
Mar 9, 1945: Tokyo
On this day, U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping
2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost
16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between
80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in
recorded history
Slaughterhouse-Five
WWII: Dresden
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“Even then I was supposedly writing a book about Dresden. It
wasn’t a famous air raid back then in American. Not many
Americans knew how much worse it had been than Hiroshima,
for instance. I didn’t know that, either. There hadn’t been much
publicity” (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five 10).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uopjdkvXbGw 
documentary start @ 25 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GONKg5ci3I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCAd0dmBN78
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Dresden
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On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of
Allied firebombing raids begins against the
German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of
the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many
as 135,000 people.
It was the single most destructive bombing of the
war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and all
the more horrendous because little, if anything, was
accomplished strategically, since the Germans were
already on the verge of surrender.
Slaughterhouse-Five
Dresden facts
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Dresden, Air Attack on (13-15 February 1945)
 Allied strategic bombing raid against the German city of
Dresden.
 has become the most commonly evoked image to illustrate the
excesses and horror of conventional bombing of cities.
 The firestorm was caused by Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber
Command on the night of 13 February
 The immediate controversy about the raid contributed to the
end of Allied strategic bombing.
 Cold War rhetoric and sensationalist presentations in history
books and movies have clouded the facts ever since.
 For more info- http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5229.htm
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Dresden Facts cont
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The operation opened on the night of 13 February with two separate British raids.
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Continued on 15 February
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The first blow was delivered by 244 Lancasters dropping more than 800 tons of bombs.
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This attack was moderately successful.
The inhabitants of the city were surprised with a second attack three hours later, this time
by 529 Lancasters delivering a further 1,800 tons of bombs. The concentrated accuracy of
the bombing against so many wooden structures and during ideal weather conditions
produced a terrible conflagration.
When news of the destruction of Dresden reached Britain, there was considerable public
outcry over the destruction of such a beautiful city when the war seemed to be virtually
won.
Controversy contributed to the Allied decision to suspend strategic bombing in April.
The casualty figures reported by German fire and police services ranged between 25,000
and 35,000 dead. However, thousands more were missing, and there were many
unidentified refugees in the city.
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Timeline
Your Place in History
14th C
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1900
Modern
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2000
Modernism
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Postmodernism
You are here
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
The End of Master Narratives
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts
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Life just is
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Rejection of all master narratives
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All “truths” are contingent cultural constructs
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Skepticism of progress; anti-technology bias
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Sense of fragmentation and decentered self
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Multiple conflicting identities
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Mass-mediated reality
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodern Culture
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Create your own values—no
right, wrong, sin, etc.
No right or wrong lifestyle
Biblical Truth irrelevant– okay to
dismiss whatever doesn’t feel
compatible with personal
journey
The End of Master Narratives
Postmodernism: Basic Concepts
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All versions of reality are SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS
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Concepts of good and evil
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Metaphors for God
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Language
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The self
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Gender
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EVERYTHING!
POSTMODERNISM
Postmodern Literature
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Experimental mixtures of novels, short stories,
poems, nonfiction- blending of genres
Search for identity is a common theme
Mixing of fantasy and reality
Embraces popular culture
deals with political and social issues
development of such concepts as the absurd, the
anti-hero, antinovel, magic realism