Paths of Slaughterhouse Five

Themes:

     In Slaughterhouse Five, there are themes evident of privates, the lesser known of the war officers, and prisoners of war, people who have no say in what happens next. However, it would be safe to say that everyone involved in war is a prisoner, trapped in a box where the only ways out are death and victory. Billy becomes a prisoner of the Germans, and the three unlucky soldiers randomly selected to be arrested and charged with cowardice in the film Paths of Glory become prisoners of their own country. They become trapped with no fair way out, and are put to death unjustly. What makes this so heart-wrenching is that they went to war with the French and for the French, and then were killed by the French simply because they did not want to participate in a suicide mission. Now let us address this suicide mission the men were ordered to carry out. The French knew it was a suicide mission, and when the troops were ordered to carry out the mission, some moved out of the trenches and were killed instantly, while others never left the trenches, and then there were the soldiers in between who decided to leave the trenches, then retreated back. One of the soldiers that was charged with cowardice and sentenced to death reminded me of Billy because he was a part of the group who did not leave the trenches at all because he saw no point in it, just as Billy kept zoning out, this character seemed to have the same sort of character traits. The difference between the two is that Billy was captured and this man was sentenced to death, killed by his own men. The Colonel who was yelling at his men, telling them to leave the trenches before they were killed by French guns was ironically similar to Weary because he was trying to save his men, just as Weary was trying to save Billy. Slaughterhouse Five highlighted the roles of the privates, and the film showed all aspects of officials, but it seemed as though the lower the rank of the official, the more influence they seemed to have on the current situation.

Tone:

     The tone in Slaughterhouse Five, particularly chapter two when reading about Billy actually at war, was very similar to watching the war scenes in the beginning of the film. While reading chapter two, there was a very ominous tone, and I found myself reading faster to see what was going to happen next, the anticipation of them getting captured or shot at was killing me, and I felt the exact same way when a Lieutenant and two soldiers were out on night patrol, crawling on the ground to get to the Anthill. I felt my heart start to speed up while watching that scene, and I went through the same emotions I went through when reading chapter two.