Banned Books: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

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Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut




Billy Pilgrim has been a Chaplain’s Assistant in World War II, a prisoner of war, a survivor in Dresden, an optometrist, a plane crash survivor and he has also been abducted by Tralfamadorians, taken to their planet and put on display in a human zoo. Oh, he also travels through time, revisiting moments in life. Being able to travel through time has given Billy a unique perspective on life: everything that will happen, has already happened and nothing will prevent it from happening over and over again. Why else would he get on a plane he knew was going to crash, unless he knew he would be the only survivor? But Billy is somewhat burdened by his ability to time travel. He struggles with the idea of peace and whether or not peace can exist on Earth as it does in Tralfamdore. What Billy hasn’t been able to do is focus on those moments that make him happy. It’s obvious in his travels that he focuses on the moments that cause him the most pain and trouble. How can Billy believe in peace when he constantly travels to the moments that cause him the most pain?
                Slaughterhouse Five was a novel fraught with emotional challenges for Billy, the main character. He had experienced horrific circumstances throughout his adult life and has to create ways of coping with tragedy. He is convinced he can travel through time and this belief enables him to accept the things he cannot change. Billy also believes he has been abducted by aliens. Those aliens help instill in him different levels of awareness and acceptance. His confusion about their existence allows him to question different aspects of life. He constantly revisits the events of World War II and the fire-bombing of Dresden.  It seems throughout the narration, as if Billy’s time in the war, his capture and his survival are the defining moments of his life. But he is still unable to make sense of anything that occurred. His survival through the war haunts him and he is constantly pulled to those moments. These reoccurring moments in time prevent him from finding peace because he can’t focus on positive moments in the midst of a war.
                Vonnegut’s satirical novel about this soldier’s life during and after the war was well written, uniquely narrated, humorous and draws into question how people choose to survive and thrive after experiencing horrific events. Are we able to choose the moments that affect us the most or are we automatically drawn to the moments where we struggled and had to fight to survive? Billy’s method of coping is unique and not very effective but he is able to use it to reassure himself and pass the time. I will say that while reading this novel I had a hard time visualizing why it would be banned. The narration was simply and not very vulgar. There wasn’t an overwhelming amount of sexual reference or devious act. Then I thought, well maybe the mention of the Dresden bombings, its implications and the ignorance of the American public to the tragedy at that time may be reasons people could use to ban the novel. Alas, no. The American Library Association list reasons for banning ranging from foul language, references to God, and a few sexual references. It was even burned in North Dakota in 1973! The references they are inferring for reasons to ban the book make up a small amount of the novels contents.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons  March 25, 2014

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