StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Review - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
section 20 September 2013 Hell that Never Ends: A Book Review of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Using a fictional approach to his war memoir, Kurt Vonnegut explores the ramifications of war without directly doing it in his 215-page novel, Slaughterhouse-Five…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.7% of users find it useful
Book review
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Review"

Download file to see previous pages

Chapter one makes it clear that Vonnegut does not want to glorify the war through his novel, but intends to do the opposite. This review examines if he achieved his purpose and how he did it. An evaluation of the novel reveals that he effectively attains his goal of letting the audience figure out for themselves that war is hell in a vicious cycle, but people have to continue living for the living without forgetting the dead. Vonnegut uses time-traveling as a form of fragmented storytelling. The first chapter tells the narrator’s goal of writing about the bombing of Dresden.

He tells his war buddy’s (Bernard V. O'Hare) wife, Mary, that he does not want to romanticize the war, and instead, he promises to give his novel the title, “The Children's Crusade” (15). He does research on Dresden and is surprised to know that details about it are considered confidential up to now. He concludes the chapter with a note that his book is a “failure” because he is like Lot’s wife, another pillar of salt (22). Chapter two captures several important points in Billy’s life as he time travels.

He is “unstuck” (23) in time, reliving several experiences repeatedly, one of which is his appearance in a radio talk show, where he discloses that the aliens Tralfamadorians have kidnapped him and taken him to Tralfamadore. In the alien’s world, he was imprisoned in a zoo and mated with Montana Wildhack, a pornographic star. The same chapter introduces the character of Roland Weary, an antitank gunner who adores war violence and who forces Pilgrim to continue walking. German forces capture them thereafter.

Chapter three continues much of Pilgrim’s war experience, including the march and the railroad ride. He also goes back to his optometric practice, where he fears that his mental problems are affecting his performance as a doctor. He time jumps to a conversation with a major during the Lions Club luncheon, where he weeps after the major tells him that he should be proud that his son, Robert, is a Green Beret assigned in Vietnam. Chapter four combines many more of Pilgrim’s life events, including the alien kidnapping of Pilgrim, his birth, and Weary’s death in the train.

Pilgrim meets two new people, Edgar Derby, a high school teacher, and Paul Lazzaro, who promises to murder Pilgrim for killing Weary. Pilgrim also learns from the Tralfamadorians that time is not important to them because it is what it is. Chapter five includes some childhood experiences, including Pilgrim’s visit to Carlsbad Caverns, where he prays to God to save him from collapsing cave roofs. He also learns how the world will end from the Tralfamadorians. Then, he makes friends with a cavalry captain, Eliot Rosewater, who experiences the same sense of meaninglessness of life after the war.

Chapter six shows that someone shoots and kills Billy. Billy also remembers thousands of people in a parade in Dresden. The parade happens before the bombing. Pilgrim remembers that he and his group are locked up in Slaughterhouse-Five, underneath the city. Chapter seven narrates the airplane crash that Billy survives and the daily work routine of Dresden’s prisoners. Chapter eight depicts the destruction of Dresden. Everyone is killed and everything is destroyed apart from those who were imprisoned under the city and their guards.

Pilgrim also meets Bertram Copeland Rumfoord in Chapter nine and discovers that the Dresden bombing is, for the latter, an unfortunate necessity

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Book review Report/ Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2”, n.d.)
Retrieved de https://studentshare.org/english/1486085-book-review
(Book Review Report/ Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words - 2)
https://studentshare.org/english/1486085-book-review.
“Book Review Report/ Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words - 2”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1486085-book-review.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Book review

Fat China: A book review

Indeed, as Paul French and Matthew Crabbe point out in their book, Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation (China in the 21st Century), things are entirely different and new dangers lurk on the horizon.... John Jones Dr.... Sullivan Agriculture 201 2 May 2012 Fat China Only a few decades ago, it was common practice for parents to admonish their children to “finish the food on your plate, there are starving people in China who would love to have that”....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

Book Review of The Notebook

The essay book review of "The Notebook" presents the detailed analysis of the Nicholas Sparks' novel "The Notebook".... In the essay the main theme of lifelong indestructible love is highlighted as well as an explicit description of the main heroes' characters.... … The researcher of this essay aims to analyze the most important and overall theme of the novel, that is "Love Conquers All"....
5 Pages (1250 words) Book Report/Review

Measuring Success of Extraordinary Individuals

hellip; It is this intriguing component that made Malcolm Gladwell write the book Outliers: The Story of Success.... Brief Biography of Bethany Hamilton The life story of Bethany Hamilton was written by her, no less, with the assistance of Rick Bundschuch and Sheryl Berk, in a book entitled Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board (Hamilton, Bundschuch and Berk)....
6 Pages (1500 words) Book Report/Review

Book review of red capitalism

Name Professor Course Date Red Capitalism Introduction In the year 1975, Deng Xiaoping who is a future Chinese premier mobilized a delegation to the UN in New York.... Chinese officials uncovered their plan as they made arrangements of the expensive trip because they could only gather $ 38,000 in cash....
5 Pages (1250 words) Book Report/Review

Various Advantages of Christianity over Paganism

This essay is a book review of In this publication, Stark suggests that Christianity grew through conversions via the social media (Stark 8).... He is the author of the book “The Rise of Christianity” which was published in 1996 with the help of Princeton University Press.... This book, which is published in English, consists of 288 pages… The book evidently examines the rise of the Christian faith from an infinitesimal movement in Judea and Galilee during the era of Jesus Christ (Stark 3)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

Aesthetics Book Review and Thought

The essay "Aesthetics book review and Thought" endeavours to breakdown the elements of artwork experience to understand and make sense of artwork from the general perspective.... The first issue that is incorporated is understanding the basic idea of extemporization.... hellip; Knowledge of artwork before beholding the artwork tends to give one an onset mentality of what he is supposed to see....
7 Pages (1750 words) Book Report/Review

Dispatches from the Edge book review

The type of spirituality Cooper practices, though nowhere in the book it has been categorically been admitted by him, is of the latter category.... The wise saying from the Orient goes ‘to help those in need is the greatest act of merit and to cause intentional pain to others is the greatest act of sin'....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

Book Review - Frames Of Understanding Poverty

his is a book written by Ruby Payne and was first published in 1995.... The book provides a great insight into understanding how individuals' social economic status influences one's behavior, learning, work and decision making.... … The paper tells that the author of the book focuses on the hidden rules of various social economic classes: poverty, middle class, and wealth.... The book further provides vital strategies that can be used by individuals in the poor social economic class to move to the social middle class....
5 Pages (1250 words) Book Report/Review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us