A Comparative Analysis of Slaughterhouse-five Anonymous

War has, undisputedly, been an element of every civilization's history throughout time, but the cause of war, however, is a topic of dispute. Is war something that humans bring on themselves, or has it been deemed inevitable, no matter the circumstances? In many ways, the question of the cause of war is what brought Kurt Vonnegut to write Slaughterhouse-five. After decades of contemplating his own war experiences, Kurt Vonnegut presents war in Slaughterhouse-five as uncontrollable, and touches on the even greater subjects of free will and fate, making an unconventional, yet extremely moving, anti-war statement. In Slaughterhouse-five, Kurt Vonnegut presents the main character, Billy Pilgrim, with the epic struggle between free will and fate by demonstrating the differences between free will and fate through a spatial concept of time and by explaining the relevance of free will and fate through examples of death and war to elevate the awareness of human control over destiny.

Both free will and fate are considered under the terms of a spatial concept of time and explored thoroughly by the main character, Billy Pilgrim, after his experience in the bombing of Dresden during World War II. Billy Pilgrim is left in a state of...