Slaughterhouse Five
And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 28. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 28. Print.
By Kurt Vonnegut
Billy licked his lips, thought a while, inquired at last: "Why me?" "That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?...Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 97. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 97. Print.
I had two books with me, which I'd meant to read on the plane. One was Words for the Wind, by Theodore Roethke, and this is what I found in there:
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear,
I learn by going where I have to go.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 26. Print.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear,
I learn by going where I have to go.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 26. Print.
Billy and the rest wandered out onto the shady street.
The trees were leafing out. There was nothing going on out there, no traffic of any kind. There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two horses. The wagon was green and coffin shaped. Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgram, "Poo-tee-weet?"
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 275. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2009. 275. Print.
A letter to Kurt Vonnegut
Dear Mr. Vonnegut,
I would like to personally thank you because after I read Slaughterhouse Five I was able to write three poems regarding my traumatic experience. I hadn't been able to write about it until I read your novel. I had always had these poems in me but was always unable to put them into words. Your novel gave me comfort and a deeper understanding of PTSD. When you spoke about Lot's wife looking back and how you didn't blame her because it was the human thing to do, I felt like you understood. Those words were as if you were speaking to me directly. You didn't blame me for looking back and when you said that it was the human thing to do it made me feel accepted. It made me feel normal.
Another part of the novel made me love it even more. That was when Billy Pilgrim first visits Tralfamador. The very first thing he asked them was, "Why me?" Something that I had asked myself over and over throughout the years. The answer the Tralfamadorians gave Billy was perfect. It had been the answer I was searching for all these years. I knew then that I wasn't just holding a book in my hands but instead, a masterpiece. A true work of a genius. I will recommend your masterpiece to others who are also struggling with PTSD in hopes that it brings them the same peace it brought me. Even though you are no longer with us (So it goes), your message will live on forever.
Thank you just isn't enough,
-S.S.
I would like to personally thank you because after I read Slaughterhouse Five I was able to write three poems regarding my traumatic experience. I hadn't been able to write about it until I read your novel. I had always had these poems in me but was always unable to put them into words. Your novel gave me comfort and a deeper understanding of PTSD. When you spoke about Lot's wife looking back and how you didn't blame her because it was the human thing to do, I felt like you understood. Those words were as if you were speaking to me directly. You didn't blame me for looking back and when you said that it was the human thing to do it made me feel accepted. It made me feel normal.
Another part of the novel made me love it even more. That was when Billy Pilgrim first visits Tralfamador. The very first thing he asked them was, "Why me?" Something that I had asked myself over and over throughout the years. The answer the Tralfamadorians gave Billy was perfect. It had been the answer I was searching for all these years. I knew then that I wasn't just holding a book in my hands but instead, a masterpiece. A true work of a genius. I will recommend your masterpiece to others who are also struggling with PTSD in hopes that it brings them the same peace it brought me. Even though you are no longer with us (So it goes), your message will live on forever.
Thank you just isn't enough,
-S.S.