War in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Catch-22...

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller both have a striking resemblance in the themes of anti-war and of free will. Both don’t come into full force right in the beginning but eventually become more evident. Both novels focus on one character throughout the entire novel, and each protagonist is affected by all the events around them. It changes their perspective and how they view life as a whole. Both Billy in Slaughterhouse Five and Yossarian in Catch -22, dislike war and are known as anti-war heroes. They also believe in the idea that they have free will and that their actions can be controlled. What makes these two novels so different from other war novels is that both protagonists don’t die for their†¦show more content†¦The idea of war and that only good and peace can come from it, is painted by Vonnegut and Heller and highlighted by their utilization of irony. Their careful stabs of irony in their novels help to prove one of th eir numerous shared themes and help the anti-war theme specifically. The institutions and organizations created by war are bizarre and appear to be created in order to make profit. Many comparisons can be made between M M Enterprises in Catch-22, and the group of English men in the Nazi war camp in Slaughterhouse-five. Both protagonists have ironic experiences with the group that exists within their particular universe. In Yossarians frantic attempt to help the dying Snowden, he opens the first-aid kit and finds that The twelve syrettes of morphine had been stolen from their case and replaced by a cleanly lettered note that said: Whats good for M M Enterprises is good for the country (Heller 446). The irony in this is blatantly obvious, Snowden is not benefiting from M Ms repossession of the morphine; in fact, he will suffer to a much greater degree because of it. Obviously, the M M Enterprise is not meant to be thought as a true wartime corporation. Perhaps, Heller intended M M Enterprises to symbolize the ridiculous quality of wartime enterprises for profit. His statement is clear. The statement that Heller is trying to explain to us is that any company thatShow MoreRelatedA Research Assignment : All Quiet On The Western Front And The Sun Also Rises2803 Words   |  12 PagesRemarque, Eric Lomax, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and Ernest Hemingway, who became famous, wrote excellent novels, because they were in love, have an underlying issue or have experienced issues that they want to share with the world. I choose to investigate the following novels: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Railway Man, Slaughterhouse-5, Catch-22 and The Sun Also Rises, because they all thematically connect to the â€Å"horrors of war†. They have all suffered due to the war experience and the effectRead MoreBlack Humor in America2112 Words   |  9 PagesBlack Humor One of the most underappreciated and unrecognized forms of comedy is black humor. Black humor often deals with events that are not often associated with other forms of comedy, such as war, murder, insanity and death. The main reason that this form of comedy is so underappreciated is that it requires some thinking on the part of the audience and many people are not willing to do that. The types of humor that are popular today do not require much thinking and can be characterizedRead MorePostmodernism in Literature5514 Words   |  23 PagesPostmodern literature The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War II literature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is little agreement on theRead MorePostmodernism: The Movement in Life Essay1263 Words   |  6 Pagesinterpretation of information, the organization of knowledge, and the establishment of cultural practices† (Taylor 1). Putting both things together gives a short and brief summary of what postmodernism means. The publication of Catch-22, Lost in the Funhouse, Slaughterhouse Five and Gravity’s Rainbow in the 60s and 70s, points to the peak of postmodernism (statemaster.com). Playfulness combined with irony and black humor may be the most identifiable aspects of the postmodern movement. Using playfulness