Vonnegut's Use Of Structure example essay topic

The rise of Ludwig van Beethoven into the rank of history's greatest composers was paralleled by and in some ways a consequence of his own personal tragedy and despair (Internet -- pg. 1). Beethoven's family was of the Flemish origin. His mother, Maria Magdalena, died after a long illness when Beethoven was only 17. He was not the only child in this family though. He had 2 brothers and 1 sister, both to which were disorganized and unruly.

His family was always in constant need of funds. (The World -- 1963) Beethoven showed his extraordinary musical talent at an early age. His father hoped he could induce his child's development and make him more like Mozart, and possibly bring in some money for the family which was desperately in need. (The World-1963) As a child, Beethoven never was too interested in music even though he had the talents. Both his father and grandfather were experienced musicians and wanted him to be one also. At the age of four, Beethoven's father began to teach him the violin and piano, but wasn't successful in doing so because of his addiction to alcohol.

His training was soon taken over by his father's friend, Pfeiffer, but also, because of alcoholism, his lessons were just as irregular as before. Later, his grandfather's friend taught him until he resigned in 1781 and Beethoven's tuition was taken over by Van der Eeden's successor, Christian Ne efe. This man was not only a good teacher, but also a friend. (The World-1963; Sally Patton-pg. 73) Beethoven's first composition was published in 1783. Then, in 1784 he attained his first independent position of a court organist and violinist, and in 1787 he was sent to Vienna to study. Here, he had the opportunity to play for Mozart who liked the work of Beethoven and told his friends "Watch that young man".

(Sally Patton-pg. 73). Beethoven studied with a man by the name of Joseph Haydn, but it didn't work for very long because they couldn't get along. He began to study with other teachers and soon became very popular in Vienna. Some were pleased with his performances, but others were embarrassed by his arrogance and bad manners. (Sally Patton-pg. 73-74) In the late 1790's, Beethoven discovered an increasing buzzing and humming in his ears and it sent him into panic, searching for a cure. In 1802, he wrote a letter to his brother describing his anguish.

He asked his brother to read the letter at the funeral. His suffering had a brief respite when he soon fell in love with a young countess, and dedicated a song to her called "Moonlight Sonata". Even after this, she did not marry Beethoven. (Sally Patton-pg. 75) By October 1802, he had written the Heiligenstadt Testament confessing his deafness, and suicidal considerations.

(Internet-pg. 5) By about 1800, Beethoven was mastering the Viennese High-Classic style. Although Mozart had first perfected the style, Beethoven did extend it to some degree. Having displayed a wide range of his piano writing, he was also beginning to forge a new voice for the violin. (Internet-pg. 8) Beethoven's deafness landed him into a major cycle of depression. In his Testament, he reveals his malaise that was sending him to the edge of despair. He speaks of suicide in the same breath as a reluctance to die.

Having searched vainly for a cure, he seems to have lost all hope. For example, it was written-"As the leaves of Autumn fall and are withered-so likewise has my hope been blighted-I leave here-almost as I came-even the high courage-which often inspired me in the beautiful days of summer-has disappeared". (Internet-pg. 9) There is somewhat of a parallel between Beethoven's personal and professional life. He is at a dead end on both cases and there seems to be no more than he can do with the High-Classic style. (Internet-pg. 13) It seems undeniable that the Heilinginstadt Testament in which Beethoven came to terms with and put to rest the incurable tragedy of his deafness, also set forth a determination to prove his skills before death overcome him.

(Internet-pg. 13) Beethoven's career seemed to have come to an end in 1802. Despite the looming impossibility of recovery, his ambition to fully realize his musical talent set him to establish a new milestone in musical history-the creation of the heroic style. When you think about it, you can see how the heroism of Beethoven's music reflected his own struggles with fate and his own triumphs. (Internet-pg. 13) ""; 96""; 737""; 1020008680""; 40631""; 9"rob 9812""; Slaughterhouse-Five - Inevitability Of War""; Throughout the course of human existence, people attribute events to fate because of their belief that one has no control over one's own life. Consequently, individuals freely donate their lives to destiny, as they do not try to change their life's path, since the outcome of their life has already been predetermined. In literature, authors have often discussed this preordained view of life through the medium of fate versus free will.

Kurt Vonnegut is an excellent example of an author who has mulled greatly on this topic. In his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut uses setting, structure, and allusions to create a fatalistic view of life, which ultimately reveals the inevitability of war. One literary device that Vonnegut employs to promote a fatalistic view of life is setting. Vonnegut often creates premonitions of fate by making connections between the environments of different time periods during the life of the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. By linking various conflicts, and characters with their settings, Vonnegut manages to show that the participants in the story are controlled by their environment, and not by their free will. Numerous times in the text, Vonnegut does not express a particular emotion about a terrible event, conveying a feeling of fate to the reader precisely because of this apparent lack of feeling.

Early in the novel, Billy recalls one of his experiences in the army. Billy has been travelling with two scouts, and another teenager behind German lines for a few days. A group of German civilians find the Americans out in a quiet forest. The Germans discover the two scouts lying in a clump of bushes, and Roland Weary trying to beat Billy Pilgrim to death. Billy, dumbfounded, can think of nothing but the angelic face of the young German boy who helps him to his feet, not minding that these very people who rescued Billy have just murdered the two scouts he was travelling with.

Vonnegut writes: "Three inoffensive bangs came from far away. They came from German rifles. The two scouts who had ditched Billy and Weary had just been shot. They had been lying in ambush for Germans. They had been discovered and shot from behind. Now they were dying in the snow, feeling nothing, turning the snow to the color of raspberry sherbet.

So it goes" (54). The reader has a feeling of remorse for the scouts who are dying, but also a feeling that the scouts were destined to die, and the Germans to live, and that the scouts were fated to be discovered while waiting to ambush the very people who kill them. In addition, Vonnegut uses the "raspberry sherbet" to express details in the setting, and "so it goes" to promote a feeling of predestined doom. One gathers this sentiment from the sadness of the setting, and the way Vonnegut writes so nonchalantly, implying that the deaths were inevitable, that the scouts had to be discovered for Billy to be saved from Roland Weary and continue his pilgrimage through life, for if Billy Pilgrim had been killed, fate's plan would have been disrupted. At a later point in the story, Billy Pilgrim has arrived in a German prison camp, where Billy, and the other Americans have survived the showers, and are now hustled through gate after gate to their sleeping quarters. This comes as a shock to the reader, because of the torturous intentions the Nazis invented for the showers, thus creating the reader's surprise to find the "victims" in a German camp, unharmed.

Vonnegut uses the setting to play upon the nerves of the reader by setting up a terrible death that the fatigued Americans are prepared to walk right into. Billy recalls, "The Americans halted. They stood there quietly in the cold. The sheds they were among were outwardly like thousands of other sheds they had passed.

There was this difference, though: the sheds had tin chimneys, and out of the chimneys whirled constellations of sparks" (93). There is a sense of unavoidable death in the description of the prisoner-of-war camp. This apprehension originates from the horrendous deaths of the Jewish people when they were burned in ovens, and ground down to be used as bars of soap and buttons. Furthermore, it seems apparent to reader that the Americans are fated to die, as they "stood there quietly in the cold". Also, this shows the acceptance of fate by the Americans, and their lack of free will, as it is futile to resist what must ultimately happen to them. Consequently, the setting in Slaughterhouse-Five was employed to create a fatalistic view of life.

A fatalistic perspective of life is shown through Vonnegut's use of structure. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut uses a fragmented structure, shifting between events in Billy's life. Consequently, this structure almost implies that Vonnegut has no control over the order of the novel, and therefore no control over life, even if only on paper. Vonnegut tells how the story ends before it begins, creating the destiny of the story before the reader has even commenced to make any conclusions about the content. Vonnegut writes: It begins like this: Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet?

(22) With the structure of this introduction, Vonnegut is creating the destiny of his book. The format of Slaughterhouse-Five makes relations form in the reader's mind with the Tralfamadorian novels, and from the Tralfamadorian novels, one's mind is connected again with fate, because of the strong Tralfamadorian belief in fate. Billy tried to read a Tralfamadorian novel once, then commented on its structure, how it was organized, or disorganized, in a rather patternless way. An alien responds", 'There isn't any particular relationship between all the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. ' " (88) Vonnegut uses this loose structure so that, when the book is read, there is a feeling about life that is extremely insightful in certain areas.

By relating Slaughterhouse-Five to a Tralfamadorian novel, one must also think of the Tralfamadorian belief in fate. Furthermore, the disconnected ordering of events that Vonnegut implements, "when seen all at once" reveal that war is inevitable because no matter, which period humanity is examined, war is always present, and will continue to be present. Therefore, Vonnegut uses this structure to form a mould of a fatalistic world by concocting a compound of events that are so disorganized that they could not possibly happen to anyone but Billy, because fate has destined his life to be incoherent and unrelated. In this way, Vonnegut uses structure very effectively for his purpose of displaying the inevitability of war. Another literary device that Vonnegut uses are allusions, which aided in the creation of a world that was inevitably predetermined. Vonnegut uses examples that, on the surface, have no connection with the events of a Billy's life.

However, the examples sink into the reader's mind, and eventually form a general sense of fate by linking the lives of the characters with the lives of people who have already lived, and experienced destiny, people whose history has been recorded as an example of the necessity of certain events. Vonnegut makes many connections with Biblical people who were fated to die a certain way, knowing beforehand what their fate would be if they committed a certain sin, but still committing the sin because, even then, these people were human, and could not live otherwise. One specific example can be found in Lot's wife, a woman who has endured many hardships, and has finally been evicted from her home because the Lord is about to burn the city, and wishes to save Lot's family. The only way that Lot, and his entourage can remain innocent is to walk away from the city without looking back. However, even though Lot's wife knew the consequences, she still looked back. Vonnegut introduces his book, "And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back?

But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt? This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt". (22) In this quotation, Vonnegut is comparing himself to Lot's wife, a woman who knew before leaving that she would be turned into salt if she looked back, but she did look back. The author compares himself to this woman because he is looking back, so perhaps his book is a failure, because looking back has turned him into a pillar of salt, but fate had previously decreed that Vonnegut and Lot's wife would both look back, Vonnegut to his war years, and Lot's wife to the city of her former residence.

Another biblical allusion that appears throughout this novel is comparison of Billy Pilgrim to Jesus Christ. Vonnegut writes, "Billy cried little, though he often saw things worth crying about, and in that respect, at least, he resembled the Christ of the carol". (197) The carol referred to is, "Away in the Manger", a song unique for its peaceful description of Jesus' humble birth and surroundings, as well as the infant's response to his new habitat. Subsequently, Billy is portrayed as a young child, na " ive, and wondering at his surroundings, yet peaceful, and quiet. However, this is only shown by allusion, because Vonnegut never clearly states how young and innocent Billy was when he went off to war.

Billy Pilgrim's naivet'e is shown only in the way he responds to the war, and how the war has made him a weeping, and disconnected young man permanently, a man so confused that he commits himself to an insane asylum, and refuses to see his own mother. Billy's whole life is alluded to as a fated journey that someone has to endure, and Billy could do nothing to change his situation, as with keeping with the Tralfamadorian philosophy of this novel: everything is subject to fate. In concordance, Vonnegut uses allusion to display the events of the world as inevitable, and the lives of its peoples dominated by fate. Undoubtedly, Slaughterhouse-Five is an examination of a world ruled solely by fate. Through the atmosphere of the scenes, the construction of Vonnegut's writing, and the insinuation to other connections to fate, clearly depict that life in Slaughterhouse-Five, follows a predetermined master plan. Vonnegut's world is a microcosm of reality through its recognition that war is inevitable.

In addition, the Tralfamadorian philosophy of that life is that everything that will happen as already been predetermined, whereas it is certain that there will continue to be wars, as it is impossible to tame the greed, and insanity of every individual. Furthermore, it is futile to try to prevent wars, as is apparent in the Middle East. In conclusion, Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, effectively creates a world that is dominated by fate.