The anti-hero Billy Pilgrim and his double role in the novel "Slaughter-House Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2, University of Bamberg, language: English, abstract: In this essay the author analyzes Kurt Vonnegut¿s novel "Slaughter-House Five". The essay will examine both its form and content and analyzes how these components are willingly put in a contradictory relationship and how Vonnegut unexpectedly relies on ironic devices in order to describe the horrible conditions of the American soldiers in Germany. After that, the author argues how the character of Billy Pilgrim, with his anti-heroic aptitude, serves as a means of criticism to the indifference and the rampant materialism getting hold of the American society and how Billy purports an unconventional (and for some aspects controversial) life philosophy that still wants to bring about a deeper reflection on the responsibility of the individual in the process of social change.