ANALOGIES IN SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. uses analogies to emphasize the devastating effects of war on individuals.
"This “children’s crusade” is an unsparingly harrowing depiction of the absurdity and viciousness of war"
-Misha Berson, The Seattle Times
During World War II, Billy Pilgrim's horses suffered greatly from dehydration and cracked hooves, making every step agony. After the bombing of Dresden, Pilgrim and several prisoners of war return to the slaughterhouse to pick up some souvenirs, but Pilgrim decides stay in the horse-drawn wagon and wait for his comrades to come back. While he waits, two German doctors approach and scold him for the condition of his horses. When Pilgrim finally realizes how much abuse the animals had endured, he begins to weep because the horses are nearly mad with pain. |
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The horses' pain reminds Billy of the suffering that he endures himself throughout war. Both Billy and the horses have no way of truly understanding the reasoning behind the devastating destruction occurring around them, yet they continue to endure their suffering. This analogy advances Vonnegut's message by emphasizing the suffering of innocent victims during World War II, which further portrays war as evil and pointlessly destructive.
The horses' pain also relates to the suffering of Roland Weary throughout war. When the Germans take Billy Pilgrim and Roland Weary as their captives, they force Weary to exchange his state-of-the-art war boots for a pair of painful wooden clogs. After numerous days of walking in the agonizing clogs, Weary gets gangrene- dead tissue from lack of blood flow- from the damage that the clogs caused to his feet. Just like the horses hooves, Weary's feet were traumatically impacted by the evilness of war.
Billy Pilgrim sees Weary's bloody, injured feet in the beginning of war and the horses cracked hooves near the end of the war, signifying that the entirety of his war experience consists of pointless suffering.
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