FYEC Reaction to p. 1-86
Slaughter-House-Five
Krista Speicher
April 15, 2006

When I began reading Slaughter-House-Five, I instantly noticed a similarity to the Tim O’Brien novel that we just read in FYEC. On the first page of Vonnegut’s novel, he states, “All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true” (1). In The Things They Carried O’Brien also informs his audience that not everything he writes is true, although a lot of it is. The main reason both of these authors write in “lies” is because the plain truth is actually false. When writing on a topic as graphic as war and death, facts and bland illustrations fail to successfully portray what war was “really like”.
When first reading these books, I wondered why the authors admitted that they were not telling the truth. After all, the books are published under the genre of novel, not under the genre of historical account. After reading a good portion of Slaughter-House-Five I understand why Vonnegut and O’Brien must tell their audience that they are lying. War stories are meant to be true. However, telling somebody that one man died by gunshot, for example, does not grasp the reality of the event. In reality, the man who died by gunshot had a history, including a family, friends, and different experiences. That man is a person, a real live (no pun intended) person. That man felt things, believed things, and lived by things. Maybe he even lived for someone. Maybe he was in love. Now let me describe “one man died by gunshot”: Lying, strewn on the mushy salad forest, his arms lie haphazardly beside him. His right finger is frozen, tightly grasping nothing. From the left his profile gleams- a normal nose, thin rosy lips, and an unwrinkled brow. From the left his profile is partially in tact- the lower tip of his nostril is missing and blood gushes like juice squirting from a lime. A butterfly gently rests upon his hair line.
None of this is true. I just made it up. However, I realize that Vonnegut must make things up in order to reach the truth. In a matter as grave as war, people don’t just die, they are mutilated. I find this distortion of the truth compelling and life changing. Perhaps a lie is even truer than the truth. The truth is not capable of extending a hand into the hollow chest of a dead man and grasping the reality of his soul. The truth is up to interpretation. That’s how it becomes a lie.