When will it ever stop? After reading Slaughter House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut I am left asking this simple question, when will it ever stop? When will innocent blood stop spilling? When will put down our guns? Vonnegut’s classic novel speaks strongly of the destructive nature of war. One of the greatest used in Slaughter House-Five is through the life of Billy Pilgrim, although Billy seems to be very successful after the war with a steady job and family there is much more going on under the surface. Billy’s life is a mess he only has a job because of his father in law and he is barely connected to his sons life at all. War isolates the human soul. When one has seen so many horrific things how can they relate or connect with people who have never seen nearly anything so traumatic in their life? Vonnegut has alot to say about America and its involvement in Vietnam, how the US needs to end its war machine and go home. I found this live recording of Allen Ginsberg reading his famous poem America and I feel like it relates in alot of ways to what Vonnegut was trying to say. The opening lines of the poem in many ways deal with the absurdity of war that Slaughter House-Five portrays
America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
Yet we still prepare to send 40,000 troops to Afghanistan.
