The impacts of war and historical rot during World War II
The story about the war impacts and the historical rot during World War II is told in a flashback. The imagination depicts a character that was able to see time evolve through the ages to bring in new perspectives (Vonnegut 20). He travels through time to show the reader the realities that humans incur though in a fiction story. The character is a champion of change as he does not love to fight, which made him get arrested by the Germans.
The vulgarity and unsuitability of the book
Throughout its context, the book is shown to be vulgar and unsuitable for some readers and indeed this resulted in the book being taken away from some school libraries and children novels shops. The aspects of homosexuality and murders during the war are the epitome of the novel's context. Through reporting of the events of the war, the writer traces the unfolding of the historical events during the war as well as subsequent impact on war victims. The novel is a postmodern novel based on meta-fictional format and the preliminaries explain the context on which the novel was written.
Criticism of the story being mixed up and lacking
The story has often been criticized as being mixed up and lacking. Despite the confusion, the narrator relives his life through his birth, the growth through the youthful stages and the old age. His experience of the war is the most predominant of the stages. The narrator describes the pre-war period and the post-war period. The war experience is also dotted with anecdotes of other life experiences that are not related to war (Vonnegut 9).
The impact of war on humanity
The war period led to animosity and hostility between humanity. The work depicts the language used by the soldiers as well as their experiences in the battlefield where they were exposed to bombings and killings. The contextual format of the work in Slaughterhouse-five is short and precise, almost typical of enumeration of facts. The narrator connects himself with the bombing in Dresden. The writer goes against the normal believes and operations to recreates the events in a complex format that is characterized by lack of clarity and order.
Realizing consequences and evaluating actions
The writer portrays that the actions of humans have two consequences, which can be either harmful or good. These consequences are realized later and therefore the need to evaluate the actions first. The book explains the Dresden's fire-bombing during the World War II as well as the protests in America during the war period. Retention chamber is currently being visited for recreation purposes even though they represent the rich history building prior and post World War II where Vonnegut was beaten and imprisoned after surviving the bombing. The modernity has seen the place to be transformed into a protected area. Living through the experience, the author cuts across the shift from the orthodox way of doing things to the manner in which the retention chamber has enabled modernity to be embraced. Through guided tours, people are able to visit the location to learn about its history (Vonnegut 63).
The controversy and censorship surrounding the literature
The literature contained in Slaughterhouse has not been without controversy. It has received extreme censorship due to its tone which is defined as harsh and irrelevant coupled with obscene content. The language that was used by the American soldiers at war has been questioned, and is not recommended to use among children.
Considerations of realism and the portrayal of war
Many literature scholars have dented the literature in Slaughterhouse-five as being riddled with quietism. The lack of consideration of realism by Slaughterhouse-five's work is of concern with other scholars like Robert Merrill and Peter Scholl who criticize it for being evasive since it does not face the reality. The horror being portrayed by the literature work is mere fantasy and not something that can be realized. The main theme being portrayed in Slaughterhouse-five's literature is the submissive acceptance. The fantasy creates fear and intimidation surrounding the stories of war, which are not only historic but inapplicable in the modern society.
History as a tool and the violation of children's rights
In Slaughterhouse-five, the writer describes history as a tool that informs us about the roles played by historical crusaders that were based on ignorance. The crusaders are involved in activities that eventually led to bloodshed, which is different in the modern world where war is experienced in few areas of the world, and the act has been condemned. Romance being inculcated into war was a vile action of historical era, which in pre-historical times the realists find to be honest and special human attribute (Vonnegut 56).
The children's rights are violated as evidenced by their neglect and using as slaves, which is propagated in the fiction literature. In modernity, the use of child slaves is not only unpracticed, it is illegal. Shipping of slaves in the fiction especially the children is eminent and they are shown to suffer more than their guardians. The practice was surrounded by war that made it look legitimate but with current prevailing peace and controlled water executions, the modern world has no room for these imaginations.
Amid the rampant war era, schooling was barely there and in case it was, it was practiced in darkness. Education in the modern world is almost a human right and is a day-to-day event. Gun use and rampant killings are prehistoric and imaginary in the modern world (Vonnegut 70).
