Slaughterhouse-Five: themes and analysis

Interviewer

Good morning Mr. Vonnegut! First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity of having to interview you!

Vonnegut

Good morning to you too! It's actually my honor and pleasure to be interviewed by a popular columnist like you. I hope this will not be the last.

Interviewer

Oh certainly Kurt. I am a very good fan of yours. In fact, I have read a lot of your stories and I find them all very interesting. And speaking of which, such is the reason why I am very eager to have this interview with you -- to talk about your masterpiece, if I must say, the Slaughterhouse-Five.

Vonnegut

Great! Thanks for the compliment! Yes, the Slaughterhouse-Five is among the stories I wrote where I guess I spent so many years before I have the "courage," if that's the right word I must use, to start writing the story. This is because, if you might not know yet, the story is actually based from my experiences at war.

Interviewer

That's what I heard. That's why you and your story really awaken my interest concerning how you relate to it. I do believe that the Slaughterhouse-Five would be hard to write if I were in your shoes. But then, we should celebrate because you successfully surpassed the trials of war. Most importantly, I admire that you are able to use such experiences, bitter as they may have been, to bring out the best in you; as it is obvious that you are successful with the Slaughterhouse-Five.

Vonnegut

Oh ... thank you, thank you. There's nothing we can do anyway but to face what we have today and live our present life.

Interviewer

So, tell me Kurt, for the record, what made you write Slaughterhouse-Five?

Vonnegut

Well, you already know that I have been a witness of war, as I previously mentioned. And perhaps, no one would assume that being in the middle of people's and nations' war is a joyful experience ... because it's really, really not; whether you survive from the war, there is always something in that experience that will somehow haunt your memories and your life. And to me, my experiences at war haunted me for years. Until one day, when I woke up, I just realized that I should let go of that bad feeling that used to haunt me. And so, as a way of conquering my fear of my past's memories of war, I started writing the Slaughterhouse-Five.

Interviewer

I see. Though I have not experienced being in a war, I think I do understand your feelings about it. I could only just imagine. And what a good way you used to conquer your fear! It's a method that most psychologists actually recommend. And based on how I see in your aura, I'm sure you are successful using that method. However, while writing the story, did there ever come a time when your fear of your war memories haunted you again? ... Or perhaps because of such fear when you thought that you don't want to finish the story anymore?

Vonnegut

Yes, it did. But lucky for me because it only caused me slight feelings of indifference or fear. No, I did not come to the point of throwing what I had started...I mean the Slaughterhouse-Five. Maybe one reason to this is because I really focused myself on writing the story ... although there is nothing much good that a reader can get from reading a story of massacres, pain, and death.

But focusing on the story helped me a lot because it became an outlet of my fears.

Interviewer

That's good for you! Aside from wanting to conquer you fear of the past, what inspired you to write the Slaughterhouse-Five?

Vonnegut

I guess it's my wanting to share the experience to others as a way of providing them with information how things were during the war. War can really be a thing that most people can be curious of. You know, asking questions like "how were people living in the middle of a war?," "what are the things that we do during the war?" ... And it's really like storytelling to them while they are on the other hand so eager of listening to your stories ....[quick laugh]

Interviewer

Yes, I agree with you on that because I myself feel the same about war stories. How long did it take you to complete the Slaughterhouse-Five?

Vonnegut

Ironically, the Slaughterhouse-Five was completed faster than the other stories I've written. Before I started writing it, I was actually in doubt whether I could finish the story because I knew it's going to be a hard thing for me to do to reminisce the sad war. But it turned out that while writing the story, I didn't realize that I've already written a lot!

Interviewer

Maybe that's because you said you were focused writing it and you were not aware of the fact that "Ooops, I got so enthusiastic!" ... [laugh]

In the story, which part affected you greatly, either in a negative and positive way?

Vonnegut

I hope answering that question won't affect me anymore...[loud laugh]

Let me see ... The part that negatively affected me most is the highlight of the war where a lot of people were massacred and died. If it was so bad and unfortunate for me to witness the war, it was equally harder to think of the massacre scenes that I witnessed. On the other hand, the positive part is the scene where independence was regained. It's like a giving a good sigh saying "At last, the war is over!" Another reason why it is the most positive part to me is because it also made me realized more that I should go on with my life ... I mean that I should totally leave the bad feeling of war and face my days with hope of living them brightly.