Slaughterhouse-Five is a satirical novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. The full title of the novel, which was published in 1969, is Slaughterhouse-Five; or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death.
The novel blends science fiction and history as it describes the life and death of an American optometrist named Billy Pilgrim. While serving in the United States Army during World War II (1939-1945), Pilgrim becomes a German prisoner of war and is forced to work in an underground slaughterhouse in the city of Dresden. There, Pilgrim witnesses the firebombing of the city, which the novel claims killed 135,000 people. The descriptions of the destruction were inspired by Vonnegut’s own experiences as a prisoner of war in the city when it was firebombed by British and American warplanes early in 1945.
After the war, Pilgrim returns to his home town of Ilium, New York. There, he is kidnapped by aliens from the distant planet of Tralfamadore, who exhibit Pilgrim in their zoo. He is then allowed to return to Earth. Pilgrim becomes “unstuck in time.” He travels back and forth between the past, the present, and the future and between galaxies, including revisiting the horrors of his wartime experiences in Dresden. Pilgrim, and the novel, take the view that humanity is absurd in its tragic and violent actions and behavior, especially war. Throughout the book, Vonnegut repeats the phrase “So it goes” to reflect humanity’s failure to progress.
Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five in short scenes out of chronological order. The novel includes appearances by two characters from other Vonnegut novels, the philanthropist Eliot Rosewater and the science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout.
See also Vonnegut, Kurt.
