Past-present-future Paper

[mirdux 0]

Well yeah i had to do a topic of the past-present-future and i had to chose an author who implemented the idea into his/her writing, so i chose the writer Kurt Vonnegut, if anyones familiar with him and has read "slaughterhouse-five" could they please see in theese 3 paragraphs i wrote if i understand the book correctly? Anyone who isnt familiar with Kurt but wants to chime in on my writing is gladly appreciated.

 

One problem i have is jumping topics without explaining them throughly, if anyone sees this could they please tell me?

 

So here it is

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In the book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, he clearly recollects his experiences during world war II and mixes them with his sci-fi writing style. The book tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a prisoner of war during World War II. Billy has been predisposed to flash into different parts of his life, like his death, and his family at home. At one point in time he is abducted by aliens, these aliens have the ability to see any time in their life on command. When Billy was captive to the aliens, he adapted some of their philosophy related the the past, present and future, and on earth proclaimed it, which was received well by the people of the time, making him famous.

 

For the people of the time in which this was best received, it was looked upon as an anti-war novel. It highlighted the horrors that Billy pilgrim had to endure during his limited “flashes” In the war, such as after the firebombing having to clean up the city of rotting corpses and skeletons. Of the time of the Vietnam War, this book was recovered and was used to educate people of the brutality of war. Vonnegut in the novel often recollected the experiences he had during the war, but used Billy’s time warping tendencies to shed light on other interests of his. The aliens for one were a representation of his for evolution, not that we’ll evolve to see the future, but that we will evolve to be able to grasp the magnitude of time as it affects us, how the past intermixes with the present to create the future.

 

 

From reading this book, it only makes clearer what I know of Vonnegut’s standings and beliefs on war, life, technological advancement, and evolution. In my opinion, the aliens he encounters are exactly the opposite of Vonnegut’s belief that life is lived best with things that we don’t know. And the aliens themselves never have to make any kind of decision, they just have only to think upon what they already know, for it is what they will always know and feel. Also I think he reinforces the idea that humans often can demonstrate being blind to any kind of reason present. Light is shone on how the guards after the firebombing used so much effort and time to convict and kill a friend of Billy’s for stealing a piece of pottery on a dead body amongst all of the destruction and death around them.

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Btw the content will be cleared most of this week from wednesday-on so turnitin.com doesnt see it as plagarism, ill put it back up on the weekend -back up

Edited January 23, 2007 by mirdux (see edit history)