Comparing Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five And Player Piano
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Kurt Vonnegut is a unique writer and his works generally include science fiction topics, yet he claims he is not a science fiction writer. The way Vonnegut depicts time in his works Slaughterhouse-Five and Player Piano it seems to be used in a science fiction style. While studying Vonnegut’s unique usage of time in his novels, they both can be related through the novel’s setting, plot, and the main character’s mood towards time. First, Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five is his Dresden novel that is completely fiction, but explains to the reader certain events Vonnegut truly experienced in World War II. The novel is describing Billy Pilgrim’s life and how he has become “unstuck in time” (Vonnegut 23). Billy travels in time to different events in his life. Billy often travels back and forth to the time…show more content… Slaughterhouse-Five has a strange setting that could confuse the reader because of all the time changes throughout the story. At one point Billy is in Ilium talking to his daughter, then at another part of the story Billy is in World War II. The setting of the story is affected by time because there’s no specific setting besides the fact that it is taking place during Billy’s life. Slaughterhouse-Five has a plot entirely based around time. Billy travels to different times in his life, but mainly to his war times. Vonnegut uses an odd version of time to better explain Dresden and make his story more interesting. In Slaughterhouse-Five the main character’s attitude towards time affects the overall story. Billy Pilgrim sees time as the aliens from Tralfamadore do. Tralfamorians see life in four dimensions and not at just