My Slaughterhouse

          Breaking the fourth wall, having no chronological order, using irony, playfulness, and black humor are all elements of postmodernism. These elements all come together in the novel "Slaughterhouse Five," by Kurt Vonegut. Including many examples, the novel exemplifies postmodernism with the help of temporal distortion, metafiction and several other characteristics.

         Authors of postmodernism were not the first to use irony and humor in their writing, but for many postmodern authors, these became known as their main style. Postmodern authors will often treat very serious subjects such as World War II, the Cold War, and conspiracy theories from a position of distance and disconnect. They also choose to describe their histories ironically and humorously rather than completely depressing. In the novel for example, Vonegut recalls the Dresden fire with black humor and irony. He brings a dynamic into the novel that you don't normally see otherwise.

         Many postmodern authors attempt to involve the reader as much as possible over the course of a novel. This can take the form of asking the reader questions, including unwritten narratives that must be constructed by the reader, or allowing the reader to make decisions regarding the course of the narrative. Throughout the novel you will find Vonegut has you participate in several mind boggling questions and has you continually thinking. Temporal distortion is also a literary technique that uses a nonlinear timeline; the author may jump forwards or backwards in time, or there may be cultural and historical references that do not fit. A perfect example, because the entirety of the novel is jumping from one year to the future and then back to the past.

         Postmodern authors feature metafiction in their writing, which is writing about writing. It is an attempt to make the reader aware of its ficitionality, and sometimes, the presence of the author. Authors sometimes use this technique to allow for impossible jumps in time, or to maintain emotional distance as a narrator. In the first chapter of "Slaughterhous Five", the author is taking about how he wanted to write the novel while he was writing. Billy Pilgrim is constantly have jumps in time and time travels through his life a myraid amount of times.

         Slaughterhouse Five is a huge postmodernism novel and all of these elements make it so. Using help from black humor, irony, playfulness, and breaking the fourth wall, the novel is full of characteristics. Kurt Vonegut had a vision and something to show the world, and I think his use of postmodernism captured his thoughts nicely.