Samuel+Yang's+Summer+Reading

**Samuel Yang** **APPROVED
 * // Slaughterhouse-Five // by Kurt Vonnegut **

Essay #1** Thomas C. Foster, the author of //How to Read Literature Like a Professor//, refers to baptism as an important symbol in literature. It relates to religious affiliation, drowning, and other symbolic meanings; drowning is considered to be one of the most significant messages. Although it doesn’t directly represent the form of drowning or any other of water-related acts, //Slaughterhouse-Five//, written by Kurt Vonnegut, shows its connection with baptism through the escape of the main character and his fellow POWs from bombing during World War II. Kurt Vonnegut uses baptism to introduce another aspect of baptism that is not relevant to drowning or any kinds of water-related acts when the main character and his companions take refuge in an underground slaughterhouse. Dresden, where the prison camp of Billy and other prisoners of war is, gets destroyed as a result of immense bombing. Everyone who lives in Dresden is killed; the firebombing burns almost everything in Dresden. However, the prisoners of war and their guards are safe since they are shut up in an underground prison known as “Slaughterhouse-Five.” The prison is a former meat locker that is a very safe shelter since it is located underground. The POWs survive by going underground, which is very similar to a general form of baptism that involves going underwater and finding new life, according to its religious meaning and aspects. “…the Americans and their guards did come out; the sky was black with smoke and everybody else except for them in the neighborhood was dead” (Vonnegut 178). Even though this quote seems to carry a negative message, it actually conveys the concealed message of hope from survival (for the survivors) since it mentions that “everybody else except for them” died. Kurt Vonnegut, the author of //Slaughterhouse-Five,// establishes his own interpretation of baptism by putting the characters in the meat locker or underground and sustaining their lives. His understanding of baptism is very similar to that of Foster. They both strengthen the idea of finding hope and life. However, the only difference between them is the presence of drowning or any water-related acts.
 * Baptism **

**Essay #2**

Symbolism is one of the most important keys for the comprehension of literature. When people read novels, the first thing that they seek out and look for is the symbolism in them. Because of this, they think that symbols always need to mean something. However, Thomas C. Foster’s //How to Read Literature Like a Professor// states that symbols don’t always have to have meanings or a message in them. Foster also emphasizes that the messages of symbols are dependent on the perspectives of readers, indicating that they are all different. In //Slaughterhouse-Five//, the use of aliens and the planet Tralfamadore appears to symbolize the ideal society that the character wants to be in. Billy Pilgrim, the main character of the novel, experiences a plane crash. He begins to have imaginary visits to a planet called Tralfamadore. The aliens from the planet are able to keep their planet completely peaceful, differing from people on Earth. The most significant use of symbolism in this novel seems to be the use of Tralfamadore. On Tralfamadore, the only people who exist are Billy and Montana Wildhack. Billy Pilgrim had admired Montana Wildhack, a Hollywood adult movie star, throughout his life. Their life together on Tralfamadore seems to strengthen the idea of the planet being a symbol for Billy’s ideal society. “…Montana Wildhack really was back on Tralfamadore taking care of the baby…” (Vonnegut 204). They, later on, they have a baby, proving their love and further indicating that Tralfamadore is Billy’s dream world. Putting Billy and Montana Wildhack together on Tralfamadore reinforces the idea that Kurt Vonnegut is displaying Billy’s ideal society through the use of the planet, Tralfamadore. The symbolism for this novel is that Tralfamadorians’ peaceful planet is the ideal planet. Having been a prisoner of war, Kurt Vonnegut shows his perspectives about peace and anti-war opinions through the symbol of Tralfamadore and its aliens.  Comment:
 * Symbolism **

Samuel!!!!! Haven't seen you in so long... Anyways, I think your essay really explains the meaning of symbolism and the misconceptions people had about it. After reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I, too, realized that I misunderstood the meaning of symbolism. I really like how you have the right amount of information/ summary about the novel you have chosen. I am glad you didn't overwrite it. I think your quote relates to the whole point of the essay pretty well too! Organization and sentence fluency is good too! However, I think the essay might look better overall if you put space between each paragraph because it kind of looks like a bunch of sentences clenched up together. Besides that, good job! - Leah Yunji
 * Essay #3**

// Slaughterhouse-Five //, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a novel that conveys the message and the theme of communion. Establishing the setting of war scenes and other scenes going back and forth in time, the novel describes numerous groups and their meetings. With these meetings, the author Kurt Vonnegut naturally creates the theme of “communion.” Communion, as described in this novel, is quite different from that of other books; //Slaughterhouse-Five// shows a diversity of both positive and negative experiences related to communion, unlike most other novels. Billy Pilgrim, the main character of the novel, is a man who becomes “unstuck in time,” meaning that he doesn’t have control over time and travels back and forth in his life. Throughout the whole novel, Billy displays his experiences in his life from his service in World War II to his adventures on an imaginary planet named Tralfamadore. With his ability to become unstuck in time, Billy meets lots of people and builds companionships with them. However, the communions that Billy built were, for the most part, negative and were against him—except for one communion: the Lions Club. The Lions Club was a social group that wealthy businessmen like Billy created. “…simply having lunch with the Lion Club, of which he was past president now” (Vonnegut 60). In //How to Read Literature Like a Professor// by Thomas C. Foster, we learn that a characteristic of communion is that it almost always involves bonding over food. Billy’s communion with the Lions Club over lunch included a meal or food in it. Moreover, //Slaughterhouse-Five// shows another aspect of communion related to the war. In this way, the novel as a whole shows a diversity of experiences with communion. Some are positive while others are negative. For a negative example, Billy and his companions were prisoners of war who were moving to a prison camp in a part of Germany. This communion represents the negative feelings of being put in a German prison camp. “…Billy’s group was joined by more Americans with their hand on top of their haloed heads” (Vonnegut 64). This communion didn’t include any type of meal or food; however, it carries the most important characteristic of communion: that people join together for a single purpose (moving to a prison camp). Overall, //Slaughterhouse-Five// shows two different types of communions that included meals and the joining of numerous people.
 * Communion **

**Essay #4**

The definition of quest is a search or pursuit made in order to find or obtain something. According to //How to Read Literature like a Professor//, it requires five essential factors: a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there. These five factors are fundamental structures of quest. //Slaughterhouse-Five//, written by Kurt Vonnegut, doesn’t seem to be a novel that closely deals with quest. However, the author puts concealed message that is relevant to the idea of quest. The main character Billy, with his ability to be unstuck in time, travels time back and forth. This idea of traveling time back and forth is unique; it also seems to display Vonnegut’s aspect of quest. As Billy goes back and forth in time, he is being reflected as a special person or a quester. However, there are no other four requirements of quest other than a quester in this. Like this, other scenes and parts of the novel //Slaughterhouse-Five// do not fulfill all the five requirements for the quest. Because of this, readers might consider it as a novel that is not relevant to the idea of quest. However, the novel is like a quest in that it has a definite goal or message. When Vonnegut discusses his plans for writing a book about his experiences in World War II, his friend worries that “You will pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men” (Vonnegut 14). However, even though Vonnegut has a definite message, he does not portray war as a heroic or glamorous thing. This is because his definite message is actually anti-war. Having been a prisoner of war, the main character Billy deals with numerous experiences relevant to World War II; most of them are horrific and unimaginable. Thus, Kurt Vonnegut is trying to portray destructiveness of war and the reason why it should not happen—it is a different type of quest, but the author is still a quester because he has a definite goal in mind.
 * Quest **

**Essay #5**

According to //How to Read Literature Like a Professor// written by Thomas C. Foster, there are two categories of violence: the specific injury and narrative violence. Specific injury is a violence that authors causes characters to inflict on one another while narrative violence is a violence that causes characters to harm in general. In //Slaughterhouse-Five//, written by Kurt Vonnegut, the story mainly deals with the narrative violence; most of the violent scenes share characteristics of this type of violence including bombings, shootings, and harassment. Altogether, these create the message that revenge causes violence. Having been a prisoner of war during World War II, the main character Billy Pilgrim goes through numerous violent scenes. Violence in his life is important and necessary, because a crucial part of his life is World War II. Billy becomes a person whom everyone hates to be around, even though he didn’t do anything to his companions. To a certain extent, people even consider him to be the murderer of Roland Weary (another American POW) just because of the fact that Billy kept on bumping into Weary. This event later leads to Billy’s death, in which he gets shot by one of Weary’s close war companions, Paul Lazzaro. Billy’s death proves the statement of Thomas C. Foster that violence is derived from a certain motivation. Paul Lazzaro’s motivation for Billy’s assassination was to avenge Roland Weary’s death. However, Lazzaro has a somewhat natural instinct for violence within his nature. “Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is,” said Lazzaro, “it is revenge” (Vonnegut 139). This quote of Lazzaro’s not only strengthens the idea of revenge being a primary purpose for violence or violent scenes in the novel, but also varies the range of reasons for violence by putting an aspect of nature in it. Consequently, a significant scene of violence in //Slaughterhouse-Five// is considered to be the death of Billy. In any parts of literature, the ending is considered to be important as Foster stated in his book. I believe that the author emphasized the message of violence in the novel by putting it into the main character’s ending of life. He, to an extent, proves his message that revenge causes violence through the character Paul Lazzaro.
 * Violence **

Kevin's Essay # 5
 * Comment #1**

Hey, Kevin! Hope you spent your summer vacation meaningfully. In your essay, you showed that you comprehended the idea of symbolism well. However,your essay could've been better in several ways. Length of the introductory paragraph could've been simpler; I believe that there is a pattern of redundency. Because there was redundency, meaning of thesis sentence was quite weakened. It would've been better if you combined every other sentences talking about the main idea into one strong sentence. Moreover, your word choice seemed to be kind of weak. With improved sentence structure and better word choice, your essay would've been better. Overall, your essay displayed your perspective and own interpretation of symbolism described in //How to Read Literature Like a Professory// and your own novel. - Samuel Yang

Alice's Essay #1
 * Comment #2**

Hello? Alice! Hope you had a great summer! Reading your essay caused me to actually buy the novel that you had read. Ideas that you showed through the essay were creative and quite fascinating. Your main idea and thesis statement reinforced your strong message with one sentence. However, your sentence fluency and word choice seemed to be quite weak compared your ideas put into the essay. Although it was quite easy to follow the essay, there were several part that seemed to be irrelvant to the sentence before and after. Moreover, word choice could've improved to make the essay look more mature than it is now. In summary, your essay seemed to carry a good message of your own understanding of the novel. -Samuel Yang


 * IMPORTANT: Your summer reading assignment page should have five essays (copy and pasted) and two comments (copy and pasted). If I have to look for your assignments, points will be deducted!**