Slaughterhouse-Five: Why War Should Never HappenKurt Vonnegut Jr., World War II veteran and author of the literary masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five, was one of many witnesses to the destruction of the German city of Dresden, and one of the few who survived to recount the horrific details. Most of his writings have been used to encourage those with an anti-war mentality to take a stand and to inform everyone of the damage caused when a nation goes to war. He uses his books to remind people that war is horrible, bloody and violent, and that its glamor is just a disturbed part of the imagination that really doesn't exist. It reminds people of the visceral hatred that accompanies war; about how the Germans used the fat of dead Jews to make soap and candles and the scarcity of food for prisoners during World War II, or perhaps any war for that matter. The firebombing of Dresden resulted in the unnecessary deaths of more than 60,000 civilians and prisoners of war. Homes, lives and more were destroyed and the damage was almost unimaginable. Prisoners of war who survived the disaster were ordered to stay put and evacuate the corpses. Because there were so many of them and the stench was so putrid, most of the bodies were cremated by the soldiers and left exactly where they lay, in a pile of ashes. Such a scene seems painful for Vonnegut to look back on and he demonstrates his distaste for things such as war with his novels, particularly Slaughterhouse-Five. Kurt Vonnegut used the story of Slaughterhouse-Five to explain the aftereffects of war, why a nation should never go to war, and what such violence will ultimately lead to. Vonnegut addresses several different themes and...... middle of article ......n the process. And the last quote to sum it all up about where the war is going for everyone is: “But do you have a planet at peace? » ... “Today we have it. Other days we have wars as horrible as any you have ever known. there's nothing we can do about it, so we just don't look at them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments” (150). What Vonnegut is saying in this quote, if applied to Earth and modern warfare, is that as a nation, everyone tends to look the other way and always will, leading to the disappearance of everyone. Although there are many different messages that Vonnegut talks about in his novel Slaughterhouse Five, these are the main three. This is clearly an anti-war book that opened the eyes of many by explaining that war is not a joke, but rather something that should be taken very seriously and avoided at all costs..