SIMPLE SENTENCES IN SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
|
Vonnegut’s use of short simple sentences throughout the book Slaughterhouse Five illuminates the post traumatic state of mind the main character Billy Pilgrim, and Vonnegut himself, experienced after war.
|
The effects of war on Pilgrim are evident during encounters with his wife, Valencia. Pilgrim is unable to express his true feelings and tends to answers her questions about the war with short and elementary responses such as "um", "yes", and "no". Based on other gruesome details throughout the book, the reader realizes that the war can not be summed up into these simple responses, but Pilgrim is unable and unwilling to discuss more. |
Finally, the simple structure of this book is juxtaposed with the complexity of its plot. This juxtaposition emphasizes the confusion and uncertainty that followed Pilgrim, and many war veterans, during life after war. In an analysis by Wilson Taylor for the Vonnegut Review, Taylor explains how confusion is evident in Pilgrim by saying “catastrophe has violently wrested Pilgrim from historical time, destroying his ability to make sense of the world or himself." The simplicity of Vonnegut's structural style leads the reader to the conclusion that the coarse events experienced in war limit natural human processes in Pilgrim alienating him from society, similar to how many veterans of war feel.
McKenna Brunick's Page