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Slaughterhouse Five

Dear Mr. Vonnegut,

year in my American literature English class I have read many novels, one in particular that caught my attention from the start to end was your slaughter house five. As I read this story I found it to be in many ways confusing as well as a self realizing story. I feel that you hit the nail on the head for a description or a sort of account of war and the consequences of it. This war novel shows how Billy pilgrim copes with the ravages of war and creates somewhat of a utopia with the tralfamadorian realm. The story is so deep and complex but at the same time it reveals the "possible'' simplicity of war or anything else in life given the ability to have infinite moments in time. One of the the greatest aspects of the story is the tralfamadorian realm, this is what everyone wants to believe, know and wish to understand, if only time were available at any time, if it was everlasting or paused, or sped up. This is what Billy indefinitely uses to make himself better, being unstuck in time makes every moment of life past or present accessible. A mindset of time travel and no concept of life and death is so convenient yet it is so dreadfully sad, with no such thing as a lost moment it is the ultimate cure for a war or more specifically Billy's experience in Dresden. This "ability'' diffuses the reality and consequences of war and death. I think you did an excellent job at exposing the disastrous effect of war and it's effect on human life even long after the last shot has been fired, the various examples throughout the novel like when the hobo freezes to death or when the Edgar is shot for the tea kettle all prove this. This novel is especially important as this country is in the midst of war. I can't help but wonder what the troops in Iraq feel and what the condition of their psyche is, or what they invent to cope with the traumatizing effects of war. Part of the reason I seemed to take the novel more seriously was because for the...

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