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Parts of Slaughterhouse-Five read like a memoir, particularly where Vonnegut uses the first person voice, using the character of Billy Pilgrim to narrate his experiences in Dresden. The author even inserts himself as a character throughout key events, such as the latrine at the POW camp and digging in the corpse mines in Dresden. The insertions serve to remind the reader that though fiction, the events described in the novel actually happened, to people like Billy Pilgrim/Kurt Vonnegut.

However, Vonnegut also uses several techniques not found in the works of noted memoir writers such as Tobias Wolff and Anne Frank. For example, Vonnegut also employs a third-person point-of-view, where an omniscient narrator goes into the minds of several other characters. Thus, in addition to Billy Pilgrim, the reader also gains insight into the motivations and thoughts of other characters as well. Vonnegut also employs a time-shifting progression that takes the reader back and forth from the present (1968), to the meat locker in World War II to Billy's birth (1920) and even to his death (1976). The novel thus covers a much greater time period than most memoirs. Vonnegut even uses science fiction techniques as Billy travels to the planet Trafalmadore to live in a zoo, a technique that helps Vonnegut convey the nonsensical and incomprehensible nature of war.

In conclusion, though Slaughterhouse-Five chronicles real events, it is also a work of autobiographical fiction. Writing a novel rather than a memoir allowed Vonnegut to employ important fiction techniques - such as the omniscient narrator, a shifting timeline and even fantastic events such as a trip to another planet. Through these techniques, Vonnegut is able to construct the bombing of Dresden in great detail. The result is a novel of surprising power, one that conveys to the reader the unimaginable and ultimately useless nature of war.