An Analysis Of Slaughterhouse-Five With Sartrean Existentialism

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) is one of the most prolific and popular Americanwriters after World War II. Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is the most famous novelwritten by Vonnegut, which is widely regarded as a representative novel of blackhumor and also a postmodern masterpiece.This thesis makes an in-depth analysis of Slaughterhouse-Five with Sartreanexistentialism, and it mainly investigates the existentialist themes conveyed in thenovel, including the absurdity of the world, man’s anguish and despair and man’sfreedom and responsibility. Sartre holds that: God does not exist, there is no absolutetruth and supreme values in the universe, so the world is absurd; under thiscircumstance, man has to endure anguish and despair; however, man is also free, andhe has the freedom to choose his own values and ideals, thus create his own meaningof life and undertake his responsibility to the entire human race. Through the analysisof this thesis, it can be found that the unstoppable wars and inevitable death inSlaughterhouse-Five fully demonstrate the absurdity of the world, and the protagonistBilly’s life-long anguish and his desperate life attitude is a true portrayal of man’sliving dilemma in modern society. In addition, via tricky metafiction narration, thenovel suggests that although Vonnegut has similar life experiences as Billy, he makes adifferent choice. He chooses to bravely face the absurd, alienated and cruel reality,faithfully depict the ugly truth of wars through the writing of Slaughterhouse-Five,expressing his antiwar ideology and aiming to waken people. Therefore, Vonnegutcontributes his strength to prevent more wars and undertakes his humanitarianresponsibility as a writer.This thesis analyzes the existentialist characteristics of Slaughterhouse-Five indetail, reveals its deep philosophical foundation under the techniques of black humorand postmodernism, demonstrates Vonnegut’s important intention of writing this novel,discloses the profound social meaning of the novel and provides a quite new researchperspective for it.