Sunday, April 22, 2012

Slaughterhouse-Five: Hypocrisy

"People aren't supposed to look back.  I'm certainly not going to do it anymore."  (Slaughterhouse-Five p. 22)

Since this novel is written to be satirical, Vonnegut packs Slaughterhouse-Five with irony.  For example, in the quote above, Billy states that he is never again going to look back; however, the whole plot is based upon an event that happened in the past - the firebombing of Dresden.  Billy even claims that he still travels through the past with the assistance of his alien friends from Tralfamadore.  So basically, the entire novel is based on hypocrisy.

 Hypocrisy is a central theme in Slaughterhouse-Five.  During the Vietnam War, many people claimed to be "anti-war" supporters, but they never really did anything to actually prevent or stop the war.  People always cling to the most popular cause at the time to be considered "hip."  In my opinion, many people supported the "Stop Kony 2012" campaign because it was the cool thing to do.  The nationwide attention was good for the cause; however, where have all those supporters gone now?   And plus, where were they before?  The Invisible Children organization has been around for a long time.  Supporting a cause can be good, but only for the right reasons and with real action.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with your point about Kony. Many people throw facebook support, which actually does nothing, behind these type of moments. I believe it is done as a trend, and it is annoying how people are selective with the problems they purport to be concerned about. There are plenty of problems in the world, not just Mr. Kony.

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