Question 1

Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the most interesting anti-war novels that has been written to date. Kurt Vonnegut never made anyone in the war a hero, or a bad guy, they were all just normal people. Because all of the characters were just normal people, when they die, the readers look at the death and start to realize that it was senseless; that many of the soldiers died for pointless reasons, and for a needless cause. He also just gives all the facts, there is no embellishment, everything is simple, and everything is the truth. As a reader you come to understand not the elaborate heroes war, but the actual “children’s crusade”, was terrible, and caused the deaths of many people who should have lived. From his tone you get the feeling that he was very emotional about war, and that it is very hard for him to look back on those days. “So it goes”, might be one of the most important lines in this book in terms of conveying the anti-war message. Whenever anyone dies, whenever something senseless or horrible happens, he uses “so it goes” so that he does not need to go into any more detail than necessary. Overall this book couldn’t strike you as anything other than an anti-war novel.