Background on Kurt Vonnegut -- Vonnegut's family and the success of Slaughterhouse-Five -- Vonnegut's despair about war at the end of his life -- Vonnegut on his writing and life -- Alaughterhouse-Five and war -- Facing the cruelties of civilization and its wars -- Time travel as a brief escape from war memories -- Billy's time travel is not science fictional but psychological -- Kindness int he face of cruelty -- The moral problem of Billy's fantasies -- A nontraditional way of conveying chaos -- Vonnegut's denunciation of Tralfamadore -- Deromanticizing war -- The war novel: from heroic epic to grim reality -- Why the innocent suffer -- Contemporary perspectives on war -- Uncovering military secrets about the deaths of Iraqi civilians -- Two wars: physical andpsychological -- Casualties of the mind -- Child soldiers.
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