Sunday, April 22, 2012

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut - Paragraph Structure

"Frames are where the money is." pg. 24 "This can be useful in rocketry." pg. 80
The paragraph lengths Vonnegut uses vary from a few sentences to short, one-sentence paragraphs. I don't fully understand why he chooses to use choppy paragraphs, but I do know that it sets a certain tone over the whole book. Not much detail is given to any particular subject. This causes his descriptions to seem very matter-of-fact. He says what happened, and there are no questions asked. This adds to the anti-war sentiment of the book. Events like Billy speaking of crazy interactions with aliens are said so that it seems like it did happen. It shows that Billy is convinced he truly met these aliens. This helps Vonnegut portray the mental issues that follow the time spent at war.

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