Historical Document Analysis: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

Assignment: You are to analyze four (4) excerpts from the novel from four different chapters that reveal the author's view of America in the post-WWII decades, especially his understated critique of the country's political policies and popular culture that defined middle class American life. In particular, find four passages from the novel that refer directly or indirectly to four of the following themes related to America's post-War era (you can choose which four, just make sure they are four different themes):

1. Americans' obsession with consumerism and material possessions (especially where materialism is supposed to reflect on social status).
2. Conformity of thought and behavior of Americans (particularly where that conformity is thought to reflect patriotism).
3. Lack of government, military, and/or corporate credibility and truthfulness (especially where war and national security are concerned).
4. Superficiality of middle class American religious values and practice.
5. Anxiety and fear of Americans in the atomic age and Cold War era.
6. Miscellaneous: choose and define one of your own themes to illustrate.

Note, since this is a work of literature, the author, Vonnegut, does not always say directly he is criticizing American culture, society, or politics for example, but uses literary devices like irony, saracasm, sardonic humor, or metaphor to convey his point. You'll apply what you know about the post-War years in America to de-code these excerpts and suggest what they reveal about the author's true feelings.

Directions:

1. Choose 4 excerpts from the novel (each from a different chapter) and state which theme is exemplified by each excerpt.
2. Retype into your document each excerpt exactly as it appears in the novel and label them (Excerpt 1, Excerpt 2, Excerpt 3). Note the page number and chapter number in parenthesis at the end of the excerpt.
3. Follow the excerpt with your historical analysis of the piece, and explain how it connects to some aspect of Cold War America, its politics or popular culture, in the post-WWII decades. Be sure to indicate which of the above categories you are identifying (e.g. Conformity of thought, superficiality of religous values, anxiety and fear, etc.)

Be sure that your answers are written in your own words, and that if you choose to quote from the novel, lecture, or our textbook, that the quoted material is offset by quotation marks. No other sources should be consulted or cited.

Sample:

Excerpt 1: Theme 3 Lack of government, military, and/or coporate credibility and truthfulness (especially where war and national security are concerned).

"The speaker at the Lions Club meeting was a major in the Marines. He said that Americans had no choice but to keep fighting in Vietnam until they achieved victory or until the Communists realized that they could not force their way of life on weak countries." (p. 76, chp. 3)

Analysis:

Vonnegut is making different points here regarding the irony of America's war in Vietnam. First, the Marine officer claimed Americans "had no choice" with regard to Vietnam, when in fact America freely chose to escalate the war in Vietnam as evident by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1965. This was a deliberate policy decision made by the Johnson administration to contain Communism in Vietnam, but America was not forced to make this decision and the reported attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin proved to be false. Second, for the Marine officer to say that the Communists had to learn they "could not force their way of life on weak countries" is ironic since that is exactly what the "powerful" America was doing in Vietnam, i.e. forcing its way of life on a weaker country. Third, the fact that this speech is delivered to the Lions Club, a commonplace, middle America organization made up of civic and business leaders in small towns suggests a provincialism to America's foreign policy outlook. It is another example of Vonnegut's depiction of Americans as provincial, narrow, and mostly uninformed in their views of the larger world.