"Slaughterhouse Five" and Puritanism

Before you pull out your red pens, understand that I too hesitated to title this post what it is now. How could an antiwar book, notorious for its representation of postmodernism, relate in any manner to one of the first American literary movements? Puritanism was religious reform movement caused by many European immigrants in order to "purify" the Church and minds of the people. They valued true faith and argued against the very temporal lifestyle the New World had adopted. On the other hand, Postmodernism is a literary movement in which skepticism was incorporated into the writing. Pieces would be fragmented, disorganized, or just awkward to read in general. Despite being on the opposite ends of the spectrum, both Puritanism and Postmodernism have some common ground in which I can use as my blog's foundation: biblical references.

Throughout the book, readers can identify a number of biblical allusions such as the stories of Lot's wife, Adam and Eve, the Crucifixion, and the Garden of Eden.

Kurt Vonnegut, the author of "Slaughterhouse Five," was addressing the quality of his book when he mentioned the first reference: "This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt..." (28). In the bible, an angel told both Lot and his wife to not look back towards the destruction of Sodom. Unable to resist the temptation, his spouse turned into the wrath of God and solidified into a pillar of salt. In this line, Vonnegut is referring to himself; he is the "failure" looking back on his years as a veteran.

Only forty pages later, Vonnegut makes another reference to the bible when he says, "But, lying on the black ice there, Billy stared into the patina of the corporal's boots, saw Adam and Eve in the golden depths. In the following lines, Billy Pilgrim, the character, addresses the beauty and innocence of the first two humans and the world they lived in. Vonnegut contrasts this with the despair and guilt involved in Billy's situation -- he thirsts for contact with peace and chastity.

As a prisoner of war, Billy was faced with a multitude of worsening conditions. His worst was when he and other men were trapped in a boxcar traveling towards another camp for ten days. Disease and depression spread like a plague. His fellow American soldiers were irritable and disliked him greatly. Consumed by these conditions, Pilgrim helplessly plunged into a moribund state. Faced by imminent death, Vonnegut compares Billy to Jesus in the line: "Billy Pilgrim was lying at an angle on the corner-brace, self-crucified, holding himself there with a blue and ivory claw hooked over the sill of the ventilator" (101). The word Vonnegut used, "crucified," evokes the idea of Jesus spread over the cross, dying slowly with every breath.

Nearing the end of the book, Billy Pilgrim and a handful of his fellow soldiers were trapped in a Slaughterhouse, when one day, a man visited them. Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a former American soldier, had come to preach in favor of Nazism with pure intention of converting Billy and his friends. Plagued by starvation and a number of other conditions, the soldiers were sleepy and struggling. Despite his audience's state, Campbell continued talking, advertising the German name, until Edgar Derby stood up. "Derby raised his head, called Campbell a snake." This line, though very subtle, relates to a biblical story. Vonnegut directly identifies Howard, the American traitor, as a snake, the devil in Genesis. It is a strong metaphor that effectively convinces the audience of his Campbell's hostility.