A Comparison of Effective Anti-War Novels
Slaughterhouse Five, written by the late Kurt Vonnegut in 1969, and The Things
They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien in 1990, are two examples of anti-war literature.
Slaughterhouse Five is a novel depicting the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, an American
prisoner of war in the city of Dresden, Germany, infamous for the Allied bombing that
occurred there. The Things They Carried is a fictitious memoir that centers on the
soldiers of Alpha Company in the Vietnam War. These two novels are both similar and
different, and both effectively portray the horrors of war, and therefore should be
recognized as classics of anti-war literature. The works are effective in their blending of
fiction and non-fiction, their use of the surreal or unbelievable, and painting of a realistic,
complete picture of war.
Both Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried were written by war
veterans, and so even when parts are fictionalized, they are done so effectively and
realistically. They have a stamp of authenticity that comes from having lived what they
write. The authors purposefully introduce their plots as truth-based. In the first chapter
of Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut begins “All this happened, more or less.”
(Vonnegut, page 1) Similarly, O’Brien attempts to clarify each story with its origins,
such as in the chapter “Notes”, where he admits, “that part of the story is my own.”
(O’Brien, page 161) The authors write honestly, and draw on their past experiences to
make their stories real. Even what is fiction is not lying, because the writers have the
necessary knowledge to be able to generalize, condense, or dramatize certain events.
O’Brien writes “story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” (O’Brien, page
179) Vonnegut and O’Brien do not fictionalize to make their books more exciting, but so
1
that they can connect with more soldiers’ experiences. They write the common truths
that occur in the experiences of all soldiers. The authors themselves are veterans of war,
and they write to cope with their war experiences, perhaps needing to transport them onto
a fictional battlefield in order to survive the knowledge of what they have done in war.
Vonnegut and O’Brien can write stories that may not actually have occurred, and still
maintain a level of realism, and more importantly, continue to send their anti-war
message, which shows their effectiveness as anti-war writers.
Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried contain instances of the surreal
and unbelievable. Though strange, these instances are used with the intent of dramatizing
their war experiences to the point of effective hyperbole. In Slaughterhouse Five, the
unbelievable is central to the plot; in it, Billy Pilgrim is abducted by aliens, “the saucer
was from the planet Tralfamadore.” (Vonnegut, page 25) The novel has been
characterized by some as science-fiction. Throughout the book, Billy time-jumps
between life during and after the Second World War, from his imprisonment to his
abduction, and from his marriage to his life as a widower. From these scattered snippets
of Billy’s life, we see a clear picture of a man suffering from mental instability. The
Things They Carried, though not a science-fiction novel, also details implausible – if not
unbelievable – events. These fantastic elements exist only in the context of the beliefs of
the soldiers followed in the book. One example of this is the chapter “How to Tell a True
War Story”, in which Mitchell Sanders tells a story about a listening post in the hills,
where “one night they start hearing voices.” (O’Brien, page 74) The fantasy and mystical
of Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried serve two purposes: first, the action
is heightened, displaying the horrible realities of war on a grander scale. Second, the
2
supernatural hallucinations of war veteran characters (such as Billy Pilgrim or the
listeners in the hills) show the deleterious effects of war on the human mind. Billy
Pilgrim’s belief in aliens could be construed as schizophrenia, and in The Things They
Carried, the character Norman Bowker commits suicide.
Another common element of Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried
that distinguish them as effective anti-war literature is their focus on all aspects of life at
war. The novels do not glorify the violent skirmishes, but instead look at daily life,
during and after-war, and focus on the small and seemingly insignificant events.
Slaughterhouse Five, in which “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time”, (Vonnegut,
page 23) uses time travel to show Billy’s life before, during, and after war. In fact, the
novel is as much about Billy’s American life in the 1950s and ‘60s as it is his experiences
in World War II. In particular, Slaughterhouse Five highlights Billy’s marriage and
family, his optometry practice, his time in a mental institution, and his friendship with an
enigmatic writer named Kilgore Trout. Similarly, The Things They Carried includes
stories about many aspects of life as an American soldier in the Vietnam War, saying,
“the war wasn’t all terror and violence. Sometimes things could almost get sweet.”
(O’Brien, page 31) The book also looks at the character of Tim O’Brien after he is
drafted, and years after the war as he continues to battle the inner demons that plague him
(as well as the afore-mentioned Norman Bowker). These two novels are brutally honest
in their tellings of life both during and after war, and by painting a more complete picture
of the experiences of war veterans, they can make a more convincing anti-war statement.
The openness of Slaughterhouse Five bears an even greater significance when
considering it in the context of when it was written. The novel – written largely from the
3
perspective of a mentally-ill war veteran – was published during the Vietnam War,
bringing to light the disastrous effects of post-traumatic-stress disorder, which would be
suffered by many veterans of the Vietnam War.
While both Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried are recognized
worldwide as important pieces of anti-war literature, they have also dealt with the
criticism of being too deeply fictitious. In Slaughterhouse Five, the time travel sequences
can be confusing, making the book’s message unclear. One example of this is a passage
where Billy is “simultaneously on foot in Germany in 1944 and riding his Cadillac in
1967.” (Vonnegut, page 58) With such vague writing, Vonnegut’s message is virtually
indiscernible to many readers, and the book is thus off-putting and ineffective. The
Things They Carried, though not classifiable as science-fiction, is similarly upfront about
parts of the book being the result of the author’s imagination. Toward the end of the
novel, O’Brien declares,
“It’s time to be blunt.
I’m forty-three years old, true, and I’m a writer
now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai
Province as a foot soldier.
Almost everything else is invented.” (O’Brien, page
179)
This sort of statement occurs often in the book, which can lead readers to question the
authenticity and reliability of the novel itself. It is as if Tim O’Brien cannot be trusted.
The book is written in the style of a memoir, but then its falsehoods are brazenly exposed.
This doubt that is planted in the reader’s mind serves no purpose, instead only making the
novel’s message less convincing.
When considering the fiction of Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They
Carried – its detriments and attributes – one must realize that the fiction and imaginings
4
are consequences of the natures of the characters in these two books. Slaughterhouse
Five seems so bizarre and confusing solely because the story is seen through the eyes of
Billy Pilgrim. The purpose of the novel – as an anti-war work of literature – is to show
the true horrors of war, and it accomplishes this by vividly displaying the psychosis of
Billy Pilgrim. Many parts of Slaughterhouse Five – such as the alien abduction – are
beyond the realm of reality, but as it is said in The Things They Carried, “a true war story
cannot be believed.” (O’Brien, page 71) The realities of war exist outside of moral
society and culture, and so they often cannot be believed by those who have not
experienced it. The Things They Carried admits its fictional components, and in doing
so, paints a full and honest portrait of Tim O’Brien. Just like Slaughterhouse Five, The
Things They Carried examines war through the lenses of its main character. At the end
of the book we see that the book is not about chronicling a war, but rather “Tim trying to
save Timmy’s life with a story.” (O’Brien, page 246) Both novels were written by
veterans of war who struggle with their own psychological injuries, and so in their works
of fiction, the reader continues to see the effects of war. Slaughterhouse Five and The
Things They Carried may contain elements of the strange and unreal, but they are still
effective in delivering their anti-war messages because they are not historical documents,
but stories of journey and reflection.
Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried are two examples of effective
anti-war literature. In regard to which is better at delivering that message, it is simply up
to the taste of the individual reader. Slaughterhouse Five could be called “over the top”
with its science-fiction and delusion, while The Things They Carried is, in contrast,
subdued and introspective. Though there are these differences in tone, the two authors
5
take similar routes to the same goal. Both books are loosely based on the experiences of
the authors themselves and closely detail the psychological injuries suffered by the main
characters. The two books truly run parallel and deliver a convincing argument of the
terrors of war by honestly showing how human beings react to it. This is the true power
of Slaughterhouse Five and The Things They Carried: they are both portraits of human
nature in the context of war, and by showing the behavior of humans at war, they
effectively send their anti-war messages.
6