Banned at some Point

Slaughterhouse Five was primarily banned because it contains obscene language and sexual content. I think that banning a book as good as Slaughterhouse Five just for that of that reason is simply ridiculous. People are going to get exposed to that sort of stuff somewhere along the road (movies or other books), and besides no one would be reading such a book if they were not mature enough.

On the other hand, in the USA, Slaughterhouse Five was also banned because some sections of the book include anti-American sentiment, and that is a different story. I still think it shouldn’t be banned. It’s not like Vonnegut’s main focus of the book was not offend Americans, he was just stating his opinion.

His book provokes strong feelings and makes people realize that war is not something to be glorified. He would know, he was a soldier and fought in an actual war. He saw how the lives of innocent people were taken away and how the lives of a soldier’s family would be ruined once a soldier dies. Even though Vonnegut states in his book that war cannot be stopped, he wanted the readers to realize how appalling and horrendous war can be. But the fact that he expressing his opinion about Americans during the war, made the book very controversial.

The reason I think it shouldn’t be banned is that it should be left as an open option for anyone to read.  If you find any part of it offensive, don’t read it, it’s just Vonnegut’s opinion, not necessarily the whole worlds’ opinion. Focus on what Vonnegut wanted the reader to focus on: the main significance of the book.

The novel 1984 was also banned at some point because it contains sexual content and warns us of totalitarianism, lack of freedom and government suppression in the future. This does provoke some thought about our future and about how the government works. Much like the reason why Slaughterhouse Five was banned. Both books make the reader think about and realize the reality of this world.

Fear and Humour

"One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vein. You would have entertained us."
"Humour is an almost physiological response to fear."


By pointing put the obvious, I am going to say that Vonnegut sometimes jokes about death like it’s nothing. The repeated phrase “so it goes” in Slaughterhouse Five is one of Vonnegut queer death jokes. He also does it in the first quote where he states that someone's death on T.V. would entertain the viewers.
The second quote explains his dark and weird sense of humour. If he himself believes that humour is a result of apprehension then his absurdity must be from something he fears. His fears might be the result of what he had seen in war or the fact that his mom had committed suicide when she lost her wealth.


An additional quote showing his reaction to his fear:
“I saw the destruction of Dresden. I saw the city before and then came out of an air-raid shelter and saw it afterward, and certainly one response was laughter. God knows, that’s the soul seeking some relief.”- Kurt Vonnegut
In this quote he feels that laughing is his soul’s way of finding relief after seeing those daunting war scenes and dead bodies.
Since he thinks death is a topic of humour, it is very prevalent in his texts. However, not everyone feels the same way.
Personally, I would never be able to make a joke out of someone’s death, or be able to laugh at one.  
                                
Yet, it is what makes Vonnegut's books and sense of wittiness very unusual and striking.

Is Billy really travelling through time?

In my opinion, Billy becoming unstuck in time is simply just him having dreams or hallucinations. He is either sleeping, unconscious or on the verge of going into that state every time he “travels” though time.
To show what I mean, when Billy first became unstuck in time, he had been walking for miles in freezing weather and "He was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed. His head was tilted backwards and his nostrils flaring." After that he travelled through several moments in his life then went back to reality.
Another example would be on Pg. 132 when Billy went to bed. He travelled in time to the zoo in Tralfamadore and Montana Wildhack was brought to him as mate from Earth. He woke up the next morning and realized that he had a dream about her.

Those dreams and hallucinations can be explained by his mental state. Billy knows that he was going crazy and that marrying ugly Valencia was one of the symptoms of his disease. Billy’s psychological problems mainly stem from his childhood as he was once thrown into the deep end of a pool by his dad in an attempt to teach how to swim.  Later during his life he witnessed the horrors of war and the bombing of beautiful Dresden. This sequence of events led Billy to check himself into a mental hospital after the war. However, the plane crash is the major cause of Billy’s hallucinations. As mentioned by his daughter, Billy only started talking about time travel and the tralfamadorians after his skull got fractured during the plane crash.