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Context on Slaughterhouse-Five: The novel Slaughterhouse-Five is an anti-war novel written by Kurt Vonnegut and published in 1969. The novel was inspired by the author’s personal experience of being an American prisoner of war and surviving the firebombing of Dresden, Germany by the Allies. Set in World War II, and being published in the midst of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut is clearly concerned with war and whether or not it can ever be prevented. Despite the focus on war, Vonnegut includes other themes such as the idea of revenge. The protagonist is an American POW named Billy Pilgrim. After being captured by the Germans, Billy and other Americans are brought to a prison camp in some remote part of Europe. Billy meets another American POW named Paul Lazzaro.
One unconventional and recurring theme evident in Vonnegut’s work is to avoid portraying soldiers as heroic. Vonnegut goes to great lengths to make soldiers appear weak, incompetent, and unfit for war. According the the text in Chapter 1, this is done in an attempt to fulfill a promise to a family friend not to glorify war. Lazzaro is a despicable character; before the war, he was a car thief. Readers should first note his philosophy of revenge–that it is “sweet.” Ironically, Lazzaro doesn’t have anything against his captors, the Germans, but is ever fixated on getting revenge against those he believes have wronged him. In one brutal scene, Lazzaro tells of revenge he enacted on a dog that bit him. Lazzaro makes it clear he does not care who has wronged him, a man or a woman–even the President–he will have his revenge and it will be “sweet.”
After reading p. 176-179 in the excerpt from Slaughterhouse-Five, write a minimum of 250 words reflecting on the following prompt:
Considering revenge as portrayed in the texts we have read this term (you don’t need to consider all of them) and especially in light of Paul Lazzaro in Slaughterhouse-Five, consider whether or not revenge is ever justified. Recall that a major motivating factor for the United States getting into World War II was because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which ultimately resulted in the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In such a case, many Americans surely felt “justified” in seeking revenge, but when contrasted to Lazzaro’s brutal, sadistic behavior, one must take pause. You must first address whether revenge is ever justified, and if so, what those conditions are.
Reminders:
Do not write as if readers know the prompt
Do not merely summarize material from the works we have read
Write in a formal, academic style
Do not use any AI generative software
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