Slaughterhouse-Five is about a very particular experience of war. This book isn't about officers or heroes. It's about privates, most of whom don't want to be – and shouldn't be – on the battlefield. And it's about prisoners of war, men who have been deprived of any kind of control over where they go and what they do. There is nothing romantic about war in Slaughterhouse-Five.
It had become ‘every man for himself,’ and there was no concern for others, just their determination to save their own lives. Fry was lying on the battle field, badly injured and dying, screaming ‘save me, don’t leave me’, but the protagonist continued on without even a backwards glance or any consideration of saving him, even when he was a mate and a comrade. All dignity and respect was lost due to one’s concern to save himself. This is one of the many instances where war had dehumanised the soldiers and the mateship and comradeship, which was once strong, was also claimed by the
However, we learn that the word has no meaning to the soldiers as they would kill the sniper and any German soldier. This is meant to show the reader how brutal they have become. They were innocent conscripted men at the start and now they have turned
They are not able to escape its “ominous thunder” it’s “howling madness’ nor it’s “senseless volcanic fury”. Harrison describes scenes where the war takes on human characteristics and speaks to the soldiers. As the novel progresses the war become more and more humanised, and seemingly parallels the dehumanisation of the soldiers. Harrison describes the ‘howl of the bombardment’ and machine guns as “coming to life.” The assigning of human characteristics to war impresses up the reader it’s power. We also see that war was created by humans, but we are unable to control to it.
I want you to look at me’ ‘He looked at Chigurh...Chigurh shot him through the forehead and then stood watching. Watching the capillaries break up in him eyes. The light receiding.’ This articulates that the only reason of the coin toss it to it enhances his thrill of the kill, it adds a frisson to his game. It is Clara-Jean the innocent who ultimatly asseess . ‘you make it like it is the coin, but its you.’ This is McCarthy’s main point about choice within a violent landscape.
There is no glory, it is impossible that soldiers sacrificing themselves to attend the whole of war. Harrison despites in the novel that illustrate behavior, survival at any time, thoughts of the soldiers of others; make the reader consider deeply what the ideas the Harrison presents. There is no heroism in the war causing the soldiers have no stake to devote their life, even though they have no experiences to attack in the first bombarment. For axample, in chapter 2 the narrator sign ‘I can find nothing to appease my terror’. Even though the narrtor do not believe in God but also begins to pray”God-God-please.” The soldiers just crawl over in the trenches and finding the safe places even there is no place to avoid the bombarment.
In his preface to the novel, Remarque maintains that "a generation of men ... were destroyed by the war" (Remarque, All Quiet Preface). Baumer's closest comrades fall one after the other. The conditions in the German army are to harsh, they have no food, ammunition, moral is low they could not keep fighting. An important episode in the novel is when Baumer is issued a period of leave when he visits his home town. This leave is disastrous for Baumer because he realizes that he can not communicate with the people on the home front because of his military experiences and their limited, or nonexistent, understanding of the war.
After witnessing the heart wrenching death Paul states “I become faint, all at once I cannot do any more. I won’t revile any more, it is senseless, I could drop down and never rise up again” (32). Paul soon goes on to witness many more deaths causing sadness and annihilation to become a big part of his life. Soldiers get so use to seeing others die they become oblivious to the fact that each individual’s life is to be held sacred and that they only get one. In the book Paul feels that they have no reason to be fighting and that they have been abated to beasts just trying to protect themselves from others who are doing the same.
Instead people remained in silence, and inhumanity took over. It is important that we shall not forget this tragedy that occurred. It is far more important we should study the holocaust as well, due to the fact that hundreds and hundreds of innocent human beings lost their lives and we can't let this happen again later on in Life.` When the Jews were sent to the concentration camps, all families were separated. The Germans were not considerate at all. Because of cruel people like them
Realizing that the homeland was withdrawing from the war, soldiers became edgy. As put by Lieutenant Frank M. Campagne, “Nobody wants to be the last man in Viet Nam Killed.” Furthermore soldiers lacked inspiration and a sense of purpose. Leadership went out of their way to impress superiors with increased body count by slaughtering innocent civilians including women and children. A study ordered by Military professionalism concludes “in pursuit of selfish career goals, senior officers sacrificed integrity on the altar of personal success. They became preoccupied with trivial short term objectives even through dishonest practices and compelled subordinates to lie, cheat, and steal to meet the impossible demands of higher officers” (Millet, Maslowski & Feis, 2012, p.561).