Slaughterhouse Five was definitely the easy book to comprehend so far, at least on the surface level. It had clear sentences and correct grammar, unlike Mumbo Jumbo. I really thought the way the author depicted PTSD through a chronologically disorganized book was super cool and interesting. It was really easy to keep up with the readings because I just wanted to keep reading it. I have already read this book from Mr. Butler’s class last semester, but reading it a second time gave me a whole new perspective and I was able to understand the deeper meaning of the book.
My favorite part of the book is how blunt it is. It doesn’t dance around the subject of death, nor does go into excruciating detail. Kurt Vonnegut describes things exactly the way he saw it, even if was something as gruesome as the Dresden bombing. Seeing the narrator be so disconnected from real life and emotions gives the reader a new perspective on how war can effect veterans and how they are left with PTSD afterwards.
Even though I’ve already read this book in Mr. Butlers class, we never actually had any class discussion on it so I was left to think about it myself. We read this book alongside One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which I often thought about while reading Slaughterhouse Five again. If you haven’t already read this book, I strongly recommend it. This book gives a whole new meaning to life and what it is like to live freely. It also showed me that someone with PTSD can be suffering as much inside as someone stuck in a Russian gulag.
So far, Slaughterhouse Five is my favorite book that we’ve read. I found it the easiest to understand while depicting a much deeper, emotional theme. Even though Billy Pilgrim doesn’t seem to be a super sympathetic person, the book finds a way to make you feel sympathy towards him.
