Vonnegut's life...

Slaughterhouse-five was bashed, criticized, evaluated, and frowned upon by many for its negative themes, and political views. I think that this is a masterpiece of a genius whose perspective on life and war sets him from the rest for he was not taught Shakespeare or contemporary literature. Traces of his life answers the questions which puzzles the readers of Slaughterhouse-five.

Steps..

1. He was born in Indiana, Indianapolis to Kurt Vonnegut Sr, and Edith Lieber on November 11, 1922. He had a German background which was ironic for he ridiculed his country men in the novel for he was not proud of his family history. His father attended the Institute of Technology in Massachusetts (Architecture). 

2. He attended the Cornell University and majored in Chemistry. I think his unique perspective comes from his inexperience in the literary world for he never planned to be an author. During his education at Cornell, he enlisted in the US army. 

3. He was captured in the Battle of Bulge on December 19, 1944 and around that time, his mother committed suicide. I think the guilt that evolved from his absence when his mother needed him prompted him to focus on the concept of death which is evident in the novel. We see Valencia dying in an accident while hurrying to reunite with Billy who has survived a plane crash, we see Roland Weary die of gangrene, Wild Bob and the hob has the same fate, his accomplices in the plane along with his father-in-law, Edgar Derby, the two scouts who were a part of the Three Musketeers, the Tralfamadorians die for the world is destroyed. This focus on death, I think explains his mentality as if he is wishing or planning for his inevitable death as an act of forgiveness. His insecurity as a child, and his helplessness when his mother passed away fired his sense of grief and remorse. 

4. He witnessed the fire bombing of Dresden which is very evident in the novel and the extremes of the war is evident as "there were too many corpses to bury. So instead the Germans sent in troops with flamethrowers. All these civilians' remains were burned to ashes."

5. After the war, he attended the University of Chicago (Anthropology), and the University accepted one of his novels as thesis for his original one was rejected.


6. He was then offered a teaching occupation at the University of Iowa (1950s), and it was during that time he started to write Slaughterhouse-five, his life changing novel.


7. In 1960, he married Jane Marie Cox, but the couple divorced in 1970. He later remarried Jill Krementz, and this unorthodoxy is revisited in the novel when he engages in a relationship with Montana Wildhack after leaving Valencia.


All these individual moments in his life shaped him, and therefore Billy Pilgrim, for I consider a Vonnegut as a genius who raises numerous questions for which answers are limited. 
By:Parvathy