War is detrimental to all of humankind. Humans are peaceful creatures at heart, especially when it comes to death during wartime. If there is anything that unites every human being, it is that we all have a hard time accepting death, whether it is our own or someone close to us. Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, makes it obvious in his novel that he thinks war is unnecessary. Slaughterhouse-Five is a fictional spin on the aftermath of the firebombing of Dresden, an event that Vonnegut survived as a prisoner of war in Germany. The 130,000 deaths that occurred in Dresden seem minimal compared to the millions of other people that lost their lives during the war, especially in Japanese and Jewish concentration camps. However, the smaller death toll did not make the event any less traumatic for the people who witnessed it, and especially for the survivors. Vonnegut, much like the book’s protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, was mentally traumatized after the war ended and unable to live a normal life without the use of his own coping mechanisms. As a result of Vonnegut’s experience in World War II, he became an antiwar activist and published this novel to share his story with the rest of the world. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses symbolism, structure, and irony to convey the overall message that war and its aftermath are detrimental to all of humankind.
            Vonnegut uses symbolism to convey the overall message that war and its aftermath are detrimental to all of humankind. Tralfamadorians, the creatures that Billy Pilgrim creates in his mind as a coping mechanism after the war, are symbolic of the Germans during World War II. When Billy Pilgrim first arrived at the prison camp, the Germans made him take off his clothes and completely negated his individual freedom. They held him captive, and there was absolutely nothing that Billy could do to control the situation. Similarly, when Billy arrived in the world of the Tralfamadorians, they held him captive and took away his freedom. The Tralfamadorians and the Germans share a similar way of thinking; they think that their perception of the world is superior to those that are different. In addition to having a superior mindset, the Germans and the Tralfamadorians both ask “why” a lot. When Billy encounters a German prison guard and asks why this is happening to him, the prison guard responds by saying “Vy you? Vy anybody?" According to both the Germans and the Tralfamadorians, death seems to be something that should not be feared, since it is inevitable anyways. Tralfamadorians exist outside of this world and are capable of seeing life as a cycle of time rather than a time line, meaning that they enjoy the “nice” moments more because they know when their death will come and they are not afraid since they technically exist after death, just in a different realm. When speaking with Billy Pilgrim, a Tralfamadorian says, “All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber” (Vonnegut 109). The Germans had a similar perception to death during World War II; they thought that killing off certain groups of people did not matter that much because death is inevitable and we will all end up in the same realm anyways when we die. When humans, especially those in elite and powerful political positions, begin to view death as though it is not a big deal, war begins. Microscopically speaking, the only thing that war solves is temporary disputes between individuals or countries with different opinions. Macroscopically thinking, war is detrimental to everything having to do with human life: the psyche, the trust for the government, and the desire to find a meaningful purpose to life at all.
            Similarly, Vonnegut uses structure to convey the overall message that war and its aftermath are detrimental to all of humankind. The entire novel lacks chronological order, and the setting shifts around from before the bombing, during the bombing, and after the bombing without making linear sense to the reader. The book’s structure, or lack thereof, represents the post-traumatic stress disorder that Billy develops after he is released from the war. He is so mentally and emotionally damaged from what he witnessed that he comes up with his own coping mechanism, the lost sense of time. Billy is able to live life with peace when he is not a slave to the calendar or the clock because he is not obligated to be at a certain place at a certain time, even in his own mind. For example, the novel says, “Billy sat up in bed. He had no idea what year it was or what planet he was on. Whatever the planet’s name was, it was cold. But it wasn’t the cold that had awakened Billy. It was animal magnetism which was making him shiver and itch” (Vonnegut 173-174). As a result of his post-traumatic stress disorder, it does not matter to Billy where he is at or what year it is. These things seem insignificant compared to what he experienced during the firebombing of Dresden. When you fight in a war, you stop caring about the things that you used to care about when you come back, if you come back. Life itself becomes an obstacle. You become scared, and pitiful, and mad, just like Vonnegut artfully created Billy to be.
            Likewise, Vonnegut uses irony to convey the overall message that ware is detrimental to all of humankind. At first glance, a new reader of Slaughterhouse-Five might assume that the book is written in a dark and deep tone since it takes an anti-war stance and many of the book’s events are centered on the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. However, Vonnegut does not use a dark and deep tone to convey the central theme that war is detrimental to all of humankind. Instead, Vonnegut uses black humor, a form of irony that makes the reader want to laugh instead of cry, as a much more effective approach to convey his stance on war. For example, Billy Pilgrim encounters so many cases of death throughout the war that he begins to view death as one large mass rather than a collection of multiple individuals. As a coping mechanism, Billy starts using the phrase “so it goes” after any case of death occurs. This makes it less personal. To Billy, using the phrase “so it goes” after a death had occurred is akin to using the word “amen” after saying a prayer. It provides closure. Billy is so accustomed to people around him dying that he stops grieving, and he starts to perceive death as a normal human function. It is because of the phrase “so it goes” that Billy learns to propel forward in the looming face of death. After all, if Billy was not able to move on after somebody else died, it would not have been long until he died, too.
            All in all, Vonnegut brilliantly used symbolism, structure, and irony to share his experience at the firebombing of Dresden during World War II with the rest of the world in his publication of Slaughterhouse-Five. It was extremely important for Vonnegut to share his experience with the world because not a whole lot of people were aware of the firebombing of Dresden. The United States government chose to keep this dramatic military decision away from the media to prevent protesting. This antiwar book was published during the Vietnam War, which further fueled the protests and anti-war activists in the United States during the 1960s. Kurt Vonnegut’s way of thinking and center of consciousness shifted into an entirely separate direction after he witnessed the pure and concentrated hate that humans are capable of brewing towards each other during wartime, simply because they come from different places and believe in different gods. His mindset is contagious to the reader. In the grand scheme of life, war is unnecessary. We, as humans, do not need to kill each other to prove a point. We do not need to kill each other to prove that we are better than someone else. We do not need to kill to prove that we have more power than someone else. We do not need to kill each other because we do not understand each other. We are all humans. We came from the same place, and when we die, we will end up in the same place anyways. We do not need to kill. At all.