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Reading Slaughterhouse Five, I was most struck by Vonnegut’s take on death, especially death in war. The repeated phrase, “So it goes,” resonates deeply with me. I think that the idea that death is inevitable for all involved in war is an important message that Vonnegut is trying to convey. 

The most important part of Billy's life are his capture and imprisonment by the Germans. Billy’s capture begins with him as an inexperienced and unprepared soldier behind enemy lines, found by 3 fellow Americans and eventually captured by a group of German soldiers. One of the Americans who finds Billy is Roland Weary, a mentally deranged, egoistic man who seems to be suffering from “hero disorder”. Roland constantly views himself as hero destined to save the Americans and bring them back to safe ground. Roland saw the war as a means to prove himself “His war story was at a very exciting point” where he was more occupied with his dreams than reality. Despite his dreams of success Roland is captured along with Billy by the Germans and eventually dies due to gangrene from improper footwear. With this statement, Vonnegut is showing that no matter what motivates or drives a person in war (in Roland’s case personal achievement) death is inevitable. 

This can also be seen in the story of Edgar Derby who Billy meets as they are moved to the Slaughterhouse POW camp. An aged school teacher who join the fight due to his patriotic beliefs, “Derby had pulled political wires to get into the army at his age.” Throughout the novel, every time Edgar is mentioned we hear of his death either through the use of “Poor old” or a more depictive scene of his execution “Somewhere in there the poor old high school teacher, Edgar Derby, was caught with a teapot he had taken from the catacombs. He was arrested for plundering. He was tried and shot.” Despite the valid and perhaps noble reasons to enter the war against the rules, Edgar died. Death was inevitable and the suffering of war could not be explained. 

What do you think about Vonnegut’s take on death? Do you think that all death is inevitable, and the only thing that can come out of war is death?

Mumbo Jumbo vs Ragtime and Postmodernism

After reading both Ragtime and Mumbo Jumbo, I feel like I have been introduced to a good idea of what a postmodernist historical fiction book looks like. However, as we wrap up with our reading of Mumbo Jumbo, I feel a sense of relief, as I personally didn’t enjoy the writing style of Ishmael Reed, and his love for confusion. I think that the content of the book is extremely good, and that the social critique on white appropriation of black culture in contrast with atonism and an unwillingness to accept black culture was interesting. I felt like I was able to gain a decent understanding of the authors opinions on racial relations and interactions at the time, and I was also able to learn some about the history of religions and beliefs within Haitian, African American, and Egyption cultures.

However, I am entirely not in favor of how the book was written. I enjoyed Ragtime – the book started confusing, and each chapter would leave you scratching your head, wondering what was going on. However, as we reached the end of the book, all of the pieces fell into place, and as the reader, I was left with an “aha!” moment, in which I felt like I understood everything, and I felt like I could really fashion a critique and an opinion on the book and the message it was trying to convey. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I was not pleased with the way that Mumbo Jumbo ended, with a sudden fizzling out of the story, leaving you with as many questions about Jew Grew as you had when it started. I felt like although there was good intent in the novel, and while I still learned a great deal from it, the execution was so postmodernist and experimental that it was hard to process and take seriously.

I know there may be many that disagree with me, but personally, postmodernism just isn’t sitting well with me. I find the readings to sometimes be painful to try to process and work through, and I feel like at some point, the author “toying” with the reader becomes painfully annoying as opposed to interesting and new. I’d like to know your thoughts as my classmates on postmodernism – do you disagree with me? Is there a new approach that I should take towards reading these novels which will help me grasp them to a better degree?