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ENG121 INTRO TO NOVEL AND DRAMA
Question 1:
Slaughter House 5 is a book written by Kurt Vonnegut, and was first published in the year 1969,
by “Dell Publishing House”. The novel comprises of Duty Dance with Death, concentrating the
novel with science fiction, portraying the concepts of dark comedy, satirical explanation of
situations aligning it with science fiction. The author Kurt Vonnegut at a tender age of 22,
himself encountered Dresden Firebombing as he was captured by German in the times of Battle
of Bulge, luckily surviving the Firebombing in February 13-14, 1945. The experience of war led
the author to pen down his experiences in the novel. Slaughter House also referred to as “The
Children’s Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death”.
In the book, there was mentioned about the “Tralfamadorians”, which is a planet
mentioned by the author, where a person Billy Pilgrim is staying, he was kidnapped and taken to
Tralfamadore(Bora, 2018). The view of the Tralfamadore was that there are seven sexes on
earth, and each is essential, if babies are to be born on Earth. The literal meaning of this
proclamation is that Tralfamdorian has perceived the timing of earth in a different manner, they
have linked past, present and future together and explains that everything repeats itself, every
incident come along in a synchronized manner. They even believe that this incidents of past,
future and present are fixed and are existent eternally. The author has even explained that every
incidents have a chronological order according to Tralfamdorians and that free will is a myth.
Therefore, the learning that is acquired from this statement is that in today’s crises were the
world has been struck with a pandemic disease, everyone is bound to succumb to the
consequences. The author generally explores the concept of free will of human beings, and he
would take satirical statement to explain them (nytimes.com, 2020). He mentioned specifically

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Eng121 Intro to Novel and Drama - Slaughter House 5

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