preview

The Biblical Allusion of Lot's Wife in Slaughterhouse-Five Essay examples

Best Essays

Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, uses the biblical allusion of Lot’s wife looking back on the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to parallel the story of Billy Pilgrim during the war and his experience after, when he returns to the United States. Although the reference is brief, it has profound implications to the portrayal of America during World War II, especially the bombing of Dresden. Although Lot’s wife’s action dooms her to turn into a pillar of salt, the narrator emphasizes her choice to indicate the importance of being compassionate and having hindsight. Ultimately, Slaughterhouse-Five critiques the American social attitude to disregard the unjust nature of its actions in World War II. Furthermore, Vonnegut’s …show more content…

This attitude refuses to place blame on American government or soldiers for the massacre of over a hundred-thousand civilians. It makes slaughter socially acceptable and necessary. The attitude, championed by Rumfoord, does more than ignore the value of those lives lost, it refuses to acknowledge the right of the soldiers who participated and witnessed firebombing to receive an explanation for their actions. And, in both cases, innocents die or are unable to move forward from the event. The allusion of Sodom and Gomorrah to Dresden is not a perfect parallel. God punishes Sodom and Gomorrah because the whole city teems with corruption and sinfulness, while Dresden represents the Nazi empire, but is not an inherently sinful place. However, the death of each implicates a loss of innocence. The Nazism is evil, but the people of Dresden represent a complicated evil. They may be part of the Nazi empire, but they act in a morally acceptable and socially upstanding manner. This imperfect parallel further gives evidence that America acts in an evil way, even in combating evil. The novel illustrates this by the industry located in Dresden: “The syrup was enriched with vitamins and minerals. The syrup was for pregnant women” (203). The text offers that Americans kill neither sinners nor heralds of sin, but those

Get Access