Ms.+Jacob's+Summer+Reading

**Essay #1**

Symbol In //Slaughter House –Five// by Kurt Vonnegut, the author uses a symbol to express the permanently traumatized mind of a soldier who went through World War II. As the book is an anti-war book, it contains symbols that show how terrible a war can be. A symbol is used in the first chapter where the narrator of the book is briefly talking about himself and about the book he has been planning to write for a long time. He explains that thinking about the war causes a certain song always to come to mind. The song goes “My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Wisconsin. I work in a lumber mill there. The people I meet when I walk down the street, they ask me my name and I say: My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Wisconsin…” (Vonnegut 3). The unique thing about this song is that it infinitely loops. Because the song’s characteristic is that it keeps repeating itself, the song can be seen as a symbol for Kurt Vonnegut’s relationship to his memories of being in World War II. His memories keep playing in his mind and won’t leave him along, and so they are like the Yon Yonson song. Billy randomly states “My name is Yon Yonson” (Vonnegut 11) talking to his old war buddy Bernard V. O’Hare. In //How to Read Literature Like a Professor,// it is said that anything can be a symbol, whether or not it was the actual intention of the author. Keeping that in my mind, I believe that the Yon Yonson song is in the book in order to reflect the tormented mind of a former soldier from World War II.

Communion //Slaughterhouse –Five// by Kurt Vonnegut compares English and American POWs from World War II by the conventional of communion. As eating is explained as one of the most common ways authors use to show communion, Kurt Vonnegut uses eating scenes to compare how English people are having communion and how Americans don’t have communion. By the time the main character, Billy, encounters the English prisoners in Germany, the author had a couple of scenes that seemed to compare the relationship among the English prisoners and the relationship among the American prisoners. Background information about the English prisoners was given. A “clerical error in the war…… caused the Red Cross to ship [the English POWs] five hundred parcels instead of fifty,” (Vonnegut 94). The moment Billy met the English prisoners, the author described the literal and physical differences between American prisoners and the English prisoners. //How to Read Literature Like a Professor// states that when there are scenes about characters eating together, there are always other meanings behind it. In the novel //Slaughterhouse-Five,// the English prisoners are given much more food than they actually need. Therefore, “They were among the wealthiest people in Europe, in terms of food” (Vonnegut 94). Having much more food than they actually need, the English prisoners comfortably share their food and are in very high spirits. This explains the author’s intention of expressing the communion among the English prisoners. Now that the communion among the English prisoners is explained, the author shows the behavior of American prisoners simply by making a character directly talk about the relationships among the American prisoners: “They despised any leader from among their own number, refused to follow or even listen to him” (Vonnegut 131). Through the convention of communion (or the absence of communion), the author was able to compare the two groups of prisoners.
 * Essay #2**


 * Essay #3**

Quest

Since // Slaughter //// h //// ouse -Five // by Kurt Vonnegut is an anti-war satire novel, it can be thought of as a quest which does not follow the conventional rules of a formal quest. According to //How to Read Literature Like a Professor//, in order for a story to be a quest, the story has to meet a few requirements: it must have a quester, place to go, stated reason to go, challenges, and a real reason to go. Thus, a quest usually sounds like a lot of exciting moments with a hero. Kurt Vonnegut wanted to express his theme of the negative effects of the war. By describing a quest which does not follow the conventional rules, the novel itself proves a point that the war was pointless and nobody gained anything from the war. //Slaught// // erh //// ouse-Five // is a work of fiction that is told through the third person, but the first chapter of this book is different from the other chapters because it is narrated by the author and contains a lot of his personal views. At the beginning of the book, the author speaks that war was not won by any side but both sides lost the war. If the book were written in a formal quest form, showing that the Americans eventually won the war, then the book would not be such a great piece of satire. In the first chapter, the author tells the wife of his old war buddy O’Hare that his book will just be an anti-war book that will not promote wars; it won’t be like a war story with a likeable hero (such as someone like John Wayne). He says “We had been foolish virgins in the war, right at the end of childhood.” (Vonnegut 14) Because of the ironic fact that this book is a quest that does not look like a traditional quest, the author is telling the readers that the war was not just like a “superhero” quest.

**Essay #4**

Baptism

Kurt Vonnegut successfully puts the main character, Billy, through Baptism in //Slaughter// // h //// ouse-Five. // In //How to Read Literature like a Professor,// it is said that baptism is when a character goes underwater and then emerges from the water, symbolizing rebirth. The character “Billy” and his fellow POWs from America goe through “baptism” in //Slaughter// // h //// ouse-Five. // After getting caught by the Germans, Billy is forced to move into //Schlachthof-f// // ü //// nf //, which means Slaughterhouse-Five. Slaughterhouse-Five is a former meat slaughterhouse. It is an underground meat locker in Dresden, Germany, that is sealed off from the rest of the world once the door is shut. The city of Dresden was destroyed by a firebomb attack by the Allies on the night of February 13, 1945. Everyone except for the POWs and guards who were in the slaughterhouse at the time didn’t survive the firestorm. This is the major changing point for Billy as he is given a fresh new start as a survivor. I thought that this event was a symbol of baptism. The book //How to Read Literature like a Professor// states that when a character goes through baptism, he or she goes through rebirth. Billy did not go through drowning and being born again, but he did go through going underground and reemerging as a survivor after the firestorm. The whole event of getting placed in the slaughterhouse in Dresden was an event symbolically representing Billy’s drowning. He was placed underground as a prisoner, and thus survived the bombing. “Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead” ( Vonnegut 178), but Billy had survived. Stuck in Dresden as a prisoner, Billy was given a new life after the firestorm.


 * Essay #5**

Violence

Unexpected violence in literature always exists for a specific reason. In //Slaughter// // h //// ous -Five, // Kurt Vonnegut uses unexpected violence in certain scenes in order to authentically express how it feels to be a soldier during a war. Through reading //How to Read Literature Like a Professor,// one can learn that even a small detail described in literature has a purpose. As an example, how one talks, dresses, or inflicts violence may be a part of the big puzzle the author is trying to form. Paying attention to small details and what the purpose may be, one can better enjoy literature. There is a part in //Slaughterhouse-Five// when Paul Lazzaro, an American prisoner, gets caught by an English prisoner while trying to steal something from the English prisoner. Paul Lazzaro and Billy (the main character, an American POW) end up staying at the same hospital. The way that Paul Lazzaro talks to the English prisoner, who was on the same side (the Allies) as him, was a bit unusual. Paul talked in a very abusive way, which caught my attention. Knowing that every detail has a purpose, I thought about what the author’s purpose for making Paul talk like this might be. “Anybody touches me better kill me or I am going to have him killed” (Vonnegut 138). This detail contributes to one of the themes of the whole book: the unstable mind of a soldier during a war, which plays itself out in various types of violence. By showing such details, the author can give the readers hints about what it would be like to actually be a soldier in a war.

 Comment Kevin's essay # 5 Hello Kevin! I hope you enjoyed your summer vacation a lot. I thought this essay was the most appealing to me because I like looking in to symbols inside literatures. First of all, I think you should make your introductory paragraph much simpler. Your last sentence, or what you may also call the thesis statement must be shortened or simplified. It was really complicated for me to understand your super complex sentence. I heard it somewhere that in higher level writing the thesis statement can be a multi-sentence construction. The thing that is more important than having a one sentence thesis is being able to state the ideas clearly to the readers. Maybe you can take this chance as separating that super complex sentence in to a stronger form. Secondly, I think it is important to conclude the essay strongly with your opinion. Other than these, I think you had a not so bad idea. Good bye Edward Cho **Comment #2** Comment # 3 Lydia's essay # 2 Hello. This is Edward Cho. We know each other. I saw your earlier comment on Kevin's essay. You sounded like a professor. I was really impressed. Your essay seemed fine too. However, I don't understand your first sentence. "In our world, symbolism is a representation of one certain thing" (Ahn 1). Symbolism is something that exists in literature. I was wondering how it could be possible that there are different types of symbolism in the real world when symbolism only exists in literature. And I was confused. And my heart hurted. So I gave up trying to find out what you meant on the first sentence. I suggest that you clarify your first sentence for the readers. I really liked your essay because your voice was so phenomenal. The strong and clear words of your essay were very impressive. I liked the fact that the writing was very focused and clear. One more thing I really liked was that you tried to use various types of sentence structures. In such a short 300-word essay, you managed to use various sentence structures such as using the semi-colon. Good job and Good bye.
 * Comment #1**


 * 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!**