Rare Beautiful Moments in Slaughterhouse Five
In class today, we talked about rare beautiful moments
within Slaughterhouse Five, amidst Vonnegut’s cynicism throughout most
of the novel. Two scenes that were mentioned during discussion stood out to me.
One of them was the scene where the couple shows Billy how injured the horses
are and Billy starts crying. This is one of the only moments in the book where
Billy shows real emotion and he doesn’t seem completely out of it. Although the
scene is quite saddening, I would say that it is a beautiful scene because of
the rare glimpse of the human in Billy that is portrayed through his sympathy
for the horses in this scene. The other scene I found beautiful is the one where
the innkeeper tells the soldiers to sleep well in German. The innkeeper is one
of the only characters that has shown kindness throughout this whole novel, and
because of it, this scene is filled with a feeling of warmth and hospitality
that is nowhere to be found in the rest of the novel. Even when Billy is at his
own home or with his own wife, there isn’t much of a feeling of warmth or
relaxation, but this short scene with the innkeeper provides a sense of calmness
that I couldn’t sense anywhere else in Slaughterhouse Five. Additionally,
the fact that he tells the American soldiers to sleep well in German may
symbolize a type of peace and unity that is rare to be found during wartime.
When Mr. Mitchell first asked the question of if there were
any surprisingly beautiful moments in Slaughterhouse Five, I couldn’t
think of any off the top of my head and I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be
able to. However, after listening to other people’s ideas and thinking about
them further on my own, there are definitely (in addition to the scenes I
mention above) some beautiful moments within this seemingly hopeless story.
Throughout the majority of the discussions we’ve had about Slaughterhouse
Five, we discussed how Vonnegut drains any sense of suspense, excitement,
or beauty from the representation of war. Now that we’ve talked about these beautiful
moments in the book, it’s interesting to think about them within the larger
goal of Vonnegut to create an anti-war novel. Even though we’ve identified several
beautiful moments within the book, it definitely does not take away from the
anti-war nature of the novel. This is interesting because it would be expected
that if there are these moments in a novel about war, it would contribute to
show war in more of a positive light. However, I think that Vonnegut manages to
pull of an anti-war novel with beautiful moments in it because he created not
only an anti-war novel but an anti-(war novel). By framing his book about war
in a way that is completely different from the structure of a typical war
novel, Vonnegut avoids presenting war in a positive light while being able to
sprinkle in small moments of beauty and hope within his story.
The innkeeper and his wife are such a strange little pocket of the novel. Just before it, we get this post-apocalyptic vision of the surface of Dresden, moon-like, absolutely everybody dead – and there’s this little family just outside the city who open up their doors and wait to see if anyone will come. And then, the only people who come are Americans – the countrymen of the men who just destroyed this beautiful city and thousands of people – and the innkeeper accepts them anyway, gives them food and bids them all goodnight.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this could easily have turned ugly, with the helpless American prisoners being blamed for their countrymen’s actions, but instead, Vonnegut allows the Germans and Americans to start rebuilding together. So I think you’re totally right – this moment is surprisingly beautiful.
And maybe seeing the Germans and the Americans in this moment of peace after the bombing actually contributes to the anti-war nature of the novel. The Germans and the Americans are all portrayed as humans. They’re working together. They all suffered the same tragedy. Why exactly are they all fighting again? I think it helps show the senselessness of war, what happened to Dresden in particular.
I also loved the scene where Billy realizes the pain of the horses because of the rare emotion it evokes from Billy. This is probably the only moment where we really see any crack in Billy's indifference to his life and surroundings. Like Tyson said, I think Vonnegut intentionally makes the most tender and touching moments of the book during scenes of unity between the Germans and the Americans. He avoids connecting any strong emotions to the actual fighting, attaching those feelings instead to moments that expose true human kindness.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Vonnegut describes harrowing events with jarring apathy, instead focusing on moments of kindness. Showing "scenes of unity" between both sides of the war takes his anti-war approach further.
DeleteI thought that the scene with the German innkeeper was really sweet too. I like the idea of that showing humanity and peace between germans & americans. I think another thing that Vonnegut does that shows humanity is how he doesn't refer to the german soldiers as Nazis. I doubt that all of them fully agreed with Nazism, how many of them had a real choice? I think nice moments like with the German innkeeper showed how people can still be kind in wartimes, and I feel like one of Vonnegut's main points is the importance of humanity.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the horse scene. It kind of throws you off guard because you become so accustomed to Billy's apathy and kind of separation from reality that the show of the emotion is startling. I find it especially surprising because of what he was crying about. I would expected this much more after the bombing of Dresden than because of the horses' condition, but I am glad he did express emotion for the horses. It was just unexpected.
ReplyDeleteThe moment where Billy started crying over injuring the horse was the moment that I liked him the most, and also the moment I felt the most empathy for him as a character and a person. I tried to develop an emotional connection to him throughout the book, but it's hard to feel for anybody who doesn't seem to be feeling anything or connecting to anything. In that moment, I could tell he was having an overflow of emotions he had bottled up from the trauma, and while I felt sympathy for him, I also felt a little happy for him to finally be able to release some of those emotions.
ReplyDelete