Analysis Of The Poem Aint I A Woman - 1079 Words

Alonia Lewis Canonical Text Prof. Barnes March 16, 2016 In 1992, Bell Hooks published â€Å"Aint I a Woman† after working on it for several years. â€Å"Aint I a Woman† is a book detailing the lives of Black women in America from Slavery to the present and their relation to feminism. Hooks felt that there was an absence of books about the African American woman that were available. While there were books about individual African American women and their experiences in the oppressive American system, she believed that those women’s stories could not be generalized for all African American women. It was necessary to have a book at this time that acknowledged not black women and the two types of oppressions they experienced that formed their present status in America. Bell was encouraged by her peers to write this well needed book. She was especially motivated by the views that others had toward black women at the time: â€Å"I can remember a dinner where I talked about the book and one person, in a big booming voice choking with laughter exclaimed, ‘what is there to be said about black women!† I had written†¦ the existence of black women was often forgotten, that we were often ignored or dismissed†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Hooks). One of the most important ideas that Bell expresses in â€Å"Aint I a Woman† is double jeopardy. Black women have been silenced by two kinds of oppression: racism and sexism (Hooks 1). The racist aspect comes from the white community, while the sexist aspect comes from the African American

Causes Of Myasthenia Gravis Health And Social Care Essay Free Essays

Myasthenia Gravis is an autoimmune upset, the immune system attacks portion of the organic structure. In MG that portion is the muscular system. The organic structure produces antibodies that mark receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine on the musculus cells at neuromuscular junctions. We will write a custom essay sample on Causes Of Myasthenia Gravis Health And Social Care Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now Peoples with MG have a one -third the normal figure of acetylcholine receptors here. On a whole -body degree, this causes weak and easy fatigued musculuss. MG affects 100s of 1000s of people worldwide. Mostly adult females in their mid-twentiess or mid-thirtiess, and work forces in their 1960ss and 1970ss. The particular symptoms depend upon the site of onslaught. For 85 % of patients, the disease causes generalised musculus failing. Many people develop a characteristic level smiling and rhinal voice and have trouble mastication and get downing due to affected facial and neck musculuss. Many have limb failing. About 15 % of patients experience the unwellness merely in the musculuss environing their eyes. The disease reaches crisis degree when respiratory musculuss are affected, necessitating a ventilator to back up external respiration. MG does non impact esthesis or physiological reactions ( Shier, 2010 ) . Causes of Myasthenia Gravis The exact cause of MG is non known. One theory is the status may be triggered by a virus or other infection that has a similar construction to a portion of the acetylcholine receptor. Sometimes adult females with MG who give birth transmit these peculiar antibodies to their babes, doing musculus failing in the baby. This is called neonatal myasthenia and occurs in approximately 12 % of babes whose female parent has MG. â€Å" It is different from inborn myasthenia because the infant gets better in a few hebdomads as the antibody blood degrees go down † ( MediResource, 2013 ) . The other abnormalcy that frequently shows up in people with myasthenia gravis is an hyperactive, overlarge, or otherwise nonfunctional Thymus. The Thymus is a secretory organ located where the cervix joins the thorax. It is of import for the normal development of the immune system. Normally, the Thymus is larger in childhood than in maturity and becomes inactive around pubescence. In people with MG, nevertheless, it frequently keeps traveling into maturity ( MediResource, 2013 ) . Some people with MG turn out to hold a thymoma ( a tumour in the Thymus ) . This is a type of malignant neoplastic disease, but really few people die of thymomas ( MediResource, 2013 ) . The most common symptoms of MG are the dual vision which is called diplopia, every bit good as saging palpebras which is called ptosis, and musculus failing that normally gets worse after exercising or at the terminal of the twenty-four hours and improves with remainder. ` Swallowing troubles are of peculiar concern as they can be unsafe. MG typically does good at the beginning of a repast but tyre at the terminal, do get downing excessively hard. Some deteriorate to name where there is entire loss of ability to masticate and get down. At this point, nutrient may lodge in the pharynx, or nutrient and drink may get down to travel the incorrect manner, for illustration into the trachea, doing coughing and choking. Foods which may trip MG symptoms may be: Very hot, Spicy, Dry and britty Foods which require a batch of masticating attempt, such as tough meats or chewy Sweets, could besides pall out the myasthenic and cause trouble in get downing ( Boyce, 2013 ) . Many people with MG upset find it temporarily impossible to eat may hold to be admitted to a infirmary and be fed intravenously. Of more immediate danger is when the disease causes trouble in breathingaˆÂ ¦This is called a myasthenic crisis, and it ‘s responsible for most of the little figure of deceases due to myasthenia gravis. Peoples with take a breathing jobs must travel to a infirmary instantly. ( Boyce, 2013 ) How is Myasthenia Gravis treated? Today, MG can be controlled. There are several therapies available to assist cut down and better musculus failing. Medicines used to handle the upset include anticholinesterase agents such as Prostigmin and pyridostigmine, which help better neuromuscular transmittal and increase musculus strength. Immunosuppressive drugs such as Orasone, cyclosporine, and Imuran may besides be used. These medicines improve musculus strength by stamp downing the production of unnatural antibodies. They must be used with careful medical followup because they may do major side effects ( Nursing Link, 2013 ) . What is the forecast? With intervention, the mentality for most patients with MG is bright: they will hold important betterment of their musculus failing and they can anticipate to take normal or about normal lives. Some instances of MG may travel into remittal temporarily and muscle failing may vanish wholly so that medicines can be discontinued. Stable, durable complete remittals are the end of thymectomy. In a few instances, the terrible failing of MG may do a crisis which requires immediate exigency medical attention ( Nursing Link, 2013 ) . How is Myasthenia Gravis Diagnosed? The first stairss of naming MG include a reappraisal of the person ‘s medical history, and physical and neurological scrutinies. The marks a doctor must look for are impairment of oculus motions or musculus failing without any alterations in the person ‘s ability to experience things. If the physician suspects MG, several trials are available to corroborate the diagnosing. A particular blood trial can observe the presence of immune molecules or acetylcholine receptor antibodies. Most patients with MG have abnormally elevated degrees of these antibodies. However, antibodies may non be detected in patients with lone optic signifiers of the disease ( Nursing Link, 2013 ) . Another trial is called the edrophonium trial. This attack requires the endovenous disposal of edrophonium chloride or tensionA ® , a drug that blocks the debasement ( breakdown ) of acetylcholine and temporarily increases the degrees of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction. In people with MG affecting the oculus musculuss, edrophonium chloride will briefly alleviate failing. Other methods to corroborate the diagnosing include a version of nervus conductivity survey which trials for specific musculus â€Å" weariness † by insistent nervus stimulation. This trial records weakening musculus responses when the nervousnesss are repetitively stimulated. Insistent stimulation of a nervus during a nervus conductivity survey may show decreases of the musculus action potency due to impaired nerve-to-muscle transmittal ( Nursing Link, 2013 ) . The Future The hereafter of Myasthenia Gravis lies in the elucidation of the molecular immunology of the anti-acetylcholine receptor response with the end of developing a rational intervention for the unwellness that will bring around the abnormalcy in the immune system that consequences in the AChR immune response. To this terminal, six wide classs of theoretical intervention schemes need to be explored. First, those interventions which target the antigen specific B-cells ; Second, those interventions which target the antigen specific CD4+ T-cells ; Third, those interventions which interfere with co-stimulatory response for antigen presentation, Fourth, interventions aimed at bring oning tolerance or anergy of the CD4+ T-cell to the car antigen or the CD4+ epitopes ; Fifth, those interventions designed to excite those immunological circuits which activate CD8+ cells specific for the activation antigens expressed by CD4+ cells and Sixth, those interventions which intervene with cytokine map and discourage autoimmune mediated inflammatory responses ( Howard, 2010 ) . How to cite Causes Of Myasthenia Gravis Health And Social Care Essay, Essay examples

Slaughter house Five Critical Analysis free essay sample

Kurt Vonnegut uses Slaughterhouse-Five as a way to cope with his experience in the Dresden massacre. By taking the narrator’s voice, and by employing the themes of time and fate, Kurt Vonnegut seeks to reach out to the world, exposing to humanity the horrific aftermath of war. During World War II, Kurt Vonnegut was captured by the Germans and sent to the Dresden, â€Å"an open city with no significant targets,† to be held as a prisoner of war. On February 13, 1945, the Allied forces dropped incendiary bombs on the city, which created a â€Å"firestorm† that killed an estimated 135,000 people, and destroyed the city (Cox). When asked his purpose for writing, Vonnegut stated that he â€Å"agrees with Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini that the writer should serve his society,† however he disagreed with how they serve, saying, â€Å"they should be- and biologically have to be- agents of change† (Merril). In witnessing the massacre, Vonnegut felt as though it was his duty as a writer who had witnessed it first hand to write about this horrific massacre. We will write a custom essay sample on Slaughter house Five Critical Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Remaining the single heaviest air strike in military history, Dresden is relatively ignored in histories eyes (Cox). Kurt Vonnegut takes an anti-war stance in order to enlighten the world of the unnecessary strike and to emphasize, as someone who witnessed it first hand, the horrors of war. The book uses the massacre as a foundation of the main conflicts in the novel, with every other event, simply as fleeting as a passage of time. In most novels, the author speaks through his characters, using the characters to represent the author’s overall message. However, by directly addressing the readers, Kurt Vonnegut conveys a much deeper personal significance behind his experience in Dresden. Twenty-three years after the massacre, Vonnegut finds himself â€Å"outlining the Dresden story many times† resulting, finally, in the writing of this book (Vonnegut 5). After so many years, this book represents his attempt to â€Å"come to terms with the horror of Dresden† (Vanderwerken). Yet, in the twenty-three years, he has not figured out what to say about it, as he expresses his struggles, â€Å"I have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away† (Vonnegut 15). Ironically, Vonnegut compares the Dresden firebombing to a bird’s song, â€Å"Poo-tee-weet† (Vonnegut 19). He believes that â€Å"everything is supposed to be quiet after a massacre†¦except for the birds,† who say, â€Å"all there is to say about a massacre, things like â€Å"Poo-tee-weet† (Vonnegut 19). In this, Kurt Vonnegut emphasizes that nothing intelligent can be said about a massacre, only gibberish. Gibberish, in which even the birds cannot comprehend, let alone the men that fought in the war. Throughout his entire introduction, Kurt Vonnegut does not go into detail of the massacre, instead he emphasizes its aftermath. By focusing on the response (or lack of their of) and the affects of the massacre, he enhances overall power of his message. Vonnegut has played down the immediate impact of the war in order to make a â€Å"powerful little statement about the kinds of social attitudes responsible for war and its atrocities† (Merril). The solid, personal foundation of the book, which is the Dresden airstrike, builds a strong framework for the rest of the book and the moral statement it’s trying to show. Although this soon becomes covered up by the fantasy of the rest of the book, it is still very much there. Just as the individual impacts of war gets quickly covered up by the overall picture of war, they are still very much there, haunting the soldiers, even twenty-three years later. Kurt Vonnegut ends his introduction by introducing the beginning and end of the book: It begins like this: Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet? (Vonnegut 22) He tells us the beginning and the end, forgetting what is in the middle, jumping through time in order to introduce our main character, Billy Pilgrim. His writing shifts from the recollection of memories into short, fragmented flashbacks and flash-forwards. He explains this structure to his publisher, saying, â€Å"It’s so short and jumbled and jangles, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre† (Cox). We are then emersed in the world of time travel as we become unstuck in time and travel with Billy throughout his memories Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. Traveling back and forth throughout his life, Vonnegut introduces the theme of time in order to better explain the aftermath war. Reinforcing the concept of time itself, Billy is abducted by aliens known as the Tralfamadorians. Here, on the planet of Tralfamadore, time is not linear and does not take place in a sequential timeline of events. Instead, everything is simultaneous, occurring at the same time everywhere, â€Å"all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, and always will exist† (Vonnegut 27). The Tralfamadorians are able to look at all moments like â€Å"looking at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains† (Vonnegut 27). They can choose to look at the entire landscape, or rather, the big picture, or they can focus in on one specific piece. This creates an important contrast with how humans view their lives, and how the Tralfamadorians view theirs. Humans are too focused on the minute details of the day-to-day things, instead, they need to step back and look at the big picture, or focus on the happy moments. The Tralfamadorians believe, in fact, that the way humans look at time is an â€Å"allusion† and that â€Å"like beads on a string, once a moment is gone, it is gone forever† (Vonnegut 27). On Tralfamadore, nothing is ever gone forever, which brings into consideration the concept and the importance of death. On Earth, humans believe that death is the most permanent thing, yet, on Tralfamadore, it is as insignificant as a blade of grass in the mountain landscape. There is no longer any sense of finality in their concept of death, and once they see a corpse, â€Å" all [they] think is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that same person is just fine in plenty other moments† (Vonnegut 27). On Tralfamadore, they have managed to render death almost entirely unimportant, something that on Earth is considered almost impossible, that is, with the exception of war. In war, the individual solders no longer matter, deaths can occur by the thousands and a battle can still be considered â€Å"won. In Dresden, the mindless slaughtering of thousands of innocent people has somehow, in the eyes of war, been considered â€Å"necessary† for the greater good. Billy Pilgrim’s life literally began to flash before his eyes, as he was forced to relive his most traumatic memories. One of the first few times he became unstuck in time, Billy â€Å"began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, pass ing into death, which was violet light. There wasn’t anybody else there, or anything. There was just violet light- and a hum† (Vonnegut 43). Experiencing the sudden, finality of death as calmly as any other step in life’s process is reserved for those of whom who were exposed to the horrors of massacres or wars. While stuck traveling through time Billy, â€Å"has no control of where he is going next†¦He is in a constant stage of fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act out next† (Vonnegut 23). Billy keeps being torn from his life, as he loses a sense of something that everything is innately given: reality. He has lost his sense of self and begins to feel the need to â€Å"act out† his life. Billy’s loss of identity and loss of control connects to the life of a soldier after war. After experiencing truly horrific situations over and over again, many solders begin to question who they are and the purpose of their life, leaving an empty hole of uncertainty where it used to be. If all of time was spontaneous with everything already mapped out, and death, therefore rendered insignificant, what then, is the purpose of action? If one could not change his destiny, would he have anything to fight for anymore? The last theme of free will questions action and inaction and its affects on life. As Billy begins to adjust to his life on Tralfamadore, he begins to question one of the greatest meanings of life, asking, â€Å"why me† (Vonnegut 76). The Tralfamadorians reply, â€Å"Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why† (Vonnegut 77). In essence, we have no control of our destiny; we are left to watch as our lives play out before us, immobilized to change anything. According to Cox, â€Å"such a philosophy can, of ourse, lead to being passive and resigned rather than trying to oppose evil and make the world better. † For Billy, this realization resulted in living a life of inaction, for, â€Å"among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future† (Vonnegut 60). In fact, almost every character in Slaughterhouse-five has resolved themselves to inaction a nd slothfulness, even when their lives are on the line. Wandering across enemy lines, suddenly, Billy, Weary, and some others find themselves being shot at by German snipers. Seeing that the shot intended for him missed, â€Å"Billy stood there politely, giving the marksman another chance,† after all, â€Å"it was his addled understanding of the rules of warfare that the marksman should be given another chance (Vonnegut 33). Billy Pilgrim essentially looked death in the eye, and simply shrugged his shoulders in indifference. His entire time in war, Roland Weary had been trying to keep Billy alive, â€Å"he had been saving Billy’s life for days†¦it was absolutely necessary that cruelty be used, because Billy wouldn’t do anything to save himself† (Vonnegut 34). Instead of being fueled by the pursuit of freedom and the survival of their country, these soldiers seem beaten down, so much to the point of resolved hopelessness and acceptance of death as a consequence of their inaction. The idea of war, fighting for a common cause, for the survival of the country, and for the future generations has been crushed in this book. Nothing about war is beneficial, and it is reflected in Vonnegut’s characters. When asked about their moral inaction, Vonnegut responded, saying, â€Å"There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces† (Cox). The author’s commentary once again confirms the deflating, and dehumanizing aspect of war. There are no characters in this story, simply because there are no true humans in war. No man can retain his self-identity after witnessing and experiencing the horrific aspects associated with war a massacre. Kurt Vonnegut employs the theme of free will to emphasize the lack of humanity regarding war. In this, we see a personal struggle of his surface. Like every other person who has been in war, Kurt Vonnegut came back a different man, a man who no longer recognized himself. Yet, he finds a certain resolved acceptance that this pain, the pain of war and the pain of suffering, is engrained into our nature. In his introduction, he met with a man named Harrison Star who asked him if his book is â€Å"an anti-war book,† when Vonnegut confirmed, he replied, â€Å"you know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing an anti-war book? I say why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead,† Vonnegut replied, â€Å"I believe that, too† (Vonnegut 3). There will always be suffering, murder, massacres and wars; its part of our human nature. To revert back to a world where there is no longer suffering, one must trace their roots all the way back to â€Å"two perfect people named Adam and Eve† (Vonnegut 74). As a somewhat comforting sentiment, Vonnegut begins to cope with his war experiences simply by understanding that many people have been in his place before him, and there will be many after him. After witnessing so much tragedy in war, Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five as a way to cope with what he lived through during the war and as a way to reach out to humanity and induce understanding of the after affects of war. Witnessing firsthand the mindless slaughter of thousands of innocent lives in the Dresden massacre, Vonnegut felt as though it was his duty as a writer to write about it, and hopefully, bring awareness to the horrors of war. Published during the height of the Vietnam War, Slaughterhouse-Five did just that. Cox) At this time, anti-war protests were beginning to circle the country and, as a result, â€Å"struck such a chord with the reading public and [it] made its author a cultural icon† (Cox). Slaughterhouse-Five no doubt played a role in the public realization of the â€Å"horrors of war (and American responsibility for some of those horrors)† Slaughterhouse-Five’s enormous impact and powerful moral statement will continue to stand the test of time, remaining a â€Å"masterly novel†¦of compassion,† as fate would have it (Cox). Slaughter house Five Critical Analysis free essay sample TitanCoping with Porn Stars and Plungers Inside a fantasy world of time travel, aliens, and porn stars, Kurt Vonnegut delivers an iron hard moral statement on the aftermath of war in his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. We follow the fictional character, Billy Pilgrim, as he struggles, like Vonnegut did, to discover the purpose of life. Kurt Vonnegut uses Slaughterhouse-Five as a way to cope with his experience in the Dresden massacre. By taking the narrator’s voice, and by employing the themes of time and fate, Kurt Vonnegut seeks to reach out to the world, exposing to humanity the horrific aftermath of war. During World War II, Kurt Vonnegut was captured by the Germans and sent to the Dresden, â€Å"an open city with no significant targets,† to be held as a prisoner of war. On February 13, 1945, the Allied forces dropped incendiary bombs on the city, which created a â€Å"firestorm† that killed an estimated 135,000 people, and destroyed the city (Cox). We will write a custom essay sample on Slaughter house Five Critical Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When asked his purpose for writing, Vonnegut stated that he â€Å"agrees with Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini that the writer should serve his society,† however he disagreed with how they serve, saying, â€Å"they should be- and biologically have to be- agents of change† (Merril). In witnessing the massacre, Vonnegut felt as though it was his duty as a writer who had witnessed it first hand to write about this horrific massacre. Remaining the single heaviest air strike in military history, Dresden is relatively ignored in histories eyes (Cox). Kurt Vonnegut takes an anti-war stance in order to enlighten the world of the unnecessary strike and to emphasize, as someone who witnessed it first hand, the horrors of war. The book uses the massacre as a foundation of the main conflicts in the novel, with every other event, simply as fleeting as a passage of time. In most novels, the author speaks through his characters, using the characters to represent the author’s overall message. However, by directly addressing the readers, Kurt Vonnegut conveys a much deeper personal significance behind his experience in Dresden. Twenty-three years after the massacre, Vonnegut finds himself â€Å"outlining the Dresden story many times† resulting, finally, in the writing of this book (Vonnegut 5). After so many years, this book represents his attempt to â€Å"come to terms with the horror of Dresden† (Vanderwerken). Yet, in the twenty-three years, he has not figured out what to say about it, as he expresses his struggles, â€Å"I have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away† (Vonnegut 15). Ironically, Vonnegut compares the Dresden firebombing to a bird’s song, â€Å"Poo-tee-weet† (Vonnegut 19). He believes that â€Å"everything is supposed to be quiet after a massacre†¦except for the birds,† who say, â€Å"all there is to say about a massacre, things like â€Å"Poo-tee-weet† (Vonnegut 19). In this, Kurt Vonnegut emphasizes that nothing intelligent can be said about a massacre, only gibberish. Gibberish, in which even the birds cannot comprehend, let alone the men that fought in the war. Throughout his entire introduction, Kurt Vonnegut does not go into detail of the massacre, instead he emphasizes its aftermath. By focusing on the response (or lack of their of) and the affects of the massacre, he enhances overall power of his message. Vonnegut has played down the immediate impact of the war in order to make a â€Å"powerful little statement about the kinds of social attitudes responsible for war and its atrocities† (Merril). The solid, personal foundation of the book, which is the Dresden airstrike, builds a strong framework for the rest of the book and the moral statement it’s trying to show. Although this soon becomes covered up by the fantasy of the rest of the book, it is still very much there. Just as the individual impacts of war gets quickly covered up by the overall picture of war, they are still very much there, haunting the soldiers, even twenty-three years later. Kurt Vonnegut ends his introduction by introducing the beginning and end of the book: It begins like this: Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. It ends like this: Poo-tee-weet? (Vonnegut 22) He tells us the beginning and the end, forgetting what is in the middle, jumping through time in order to introduce our main character, Billy Pilgrim. His writing shifts from the recollection of memories into short, fragmented flashbacks and flash-forwards. He explains this structure to his publisher, saying, â€Å"It’s so short and jumbled and jangles, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre† (Cox). We are then emersed in the world of time travel as we become unstuck in time and travel with Billy throughout his memories Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time. Traveling back and forth throughout his life, Vonnegut introduces the theme of time in order to better explain the aftermath war. Reinforcing the concept of time itself, Billy is abducted by aliens known as the Tralfamadorians. Here, on the planet of Tralfamadore, time is not linear and does not take place in a sequential timeline of events. Instead, everything is simultaneous, occurring at the same time everywhere, â€Å"all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, and always will exist† (Vonnegut 27). The Tralfamadorians are able to look at all moments like â€Å"looking at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains† (Vonnegut 27). They can choose to look at the entire landscape, or rather, the big picture, or they can focus in on one specific piece. This creates an important contrast with how humans view their lives, and how the Tralfamadorians view theirs. Humans are too focused on the minute details of the day-to-day things, instead, they need to step back and look at the big picture, or focus on the happy moments. The Tralfamadorians believe, in fact, that the way humans look at time is an â€Å"allusion† and that â€Å"like beads on a string, once a moment is gone, it is gone forever† (Vonnegut 27). On Tralfamadore, nothing is ever gone forever, which brings into consideration the concept and the importance of death. On Earth, humans believe that death is the most permanent thing, yet, on Tralfamadore, it is as insignificant as a blade of grass in the mountain landscape. There is no longer any sense of finality in their concept of death, and once they see a corpse, â€Å" all [they] think is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that same person is just fine in plenty other moments† (Vonnegut 27). On Tralfamadore, they have managed to render death almost entirely unimportant, something that on Earth is considered almost impossible, that is, with the exception of war. In war, the individual solders no longer matter, deaths can occur by the thousands and a battle can still be considered â€Å"won. In Dresden, the mindless slaughtering of thousands of innocent people has somehow, in the eyes of war, been considered â€Å"necessary† for the greater good. Billy Pilgrim’s life literally began to flash before his eyes, as he was forced to relive his most traumatic memories. One of the first few times he became unstuck in time, Billy â€Å"began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, pass ing into death, which was violet light. There wasn’t anybody else there, or anything. There was just violet light- and a hum† (Vonnegut 43). Experiencing the sudden, finality of death as calmly as any other step in life’s process is reserved for those of whom who were exposed to the horrors of massacres or wars. While stuck traveling through time Billy, â€Å"has no control of where he is going next†¦He is in a constant stage of fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act out next† (Vonnegut 23). Billy keeps being torn from his life, as he loses a sense of something that everything is innately given: reality. He has lost his sense of self and begins to feel the need to â€Å"act out† his life. Billy’s loss of identity and loss of control connects to the life of a soldier after war. After experiencing truly horrific situations over and over again, many solders begin to question who they are and the purpose of their life, leaving an empty hole of uncertainty where it used to be. If all of time was spontaneous with everything already mapped out, and death, therefore rendered insignificant, what then, is the purpose of action? If one could not change his destiny, would he have anything to fight for anymore? The last theme of free will questions action and inaction and its affects on life. As Billy begins to adjust to his life on Tralfamadore, he begins to question one of the greatest meanings of life, asking, â€Å"why me† (Vonnegut 76). The Tralfamadorians reply, â€Å"Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why† (Vonnegut 77). In essence, we have no control of our destiny; we are left to watch as our lives play out before us, immobilized to change anything. According to Cox, â€Å"such a philosophy can, of ourse, lead to being passive and resigned rather than trying to oppose evil and make the world better. † For Billy, this realization resulted in living a life of inaction, for, â€Å"among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future† (Vonnegut 60). In fact, almost every character in Slaughterhouse-five has resolved themselves to inaction a nd slothfulness, even when their lives are on the line. Wandering across enemy lines, suddenly, Billy, Weary, and some others find themselves being shot at by German snipers. Seeing that the shot intended for him missed, â€Å"Billy stood there politely, giving the marksman another chance,† after all, â€Å"it was his addled understanding of the rules of warfare that the marksman should be given another chance (Vonnegut 33). Billy Pilgrim essentially looked death in the eye, and simply shrugged his shoulders in indifference. His entire time in war, Roland Weary had been trying to keep Billy alive, â€Å"he had been saving Billy’s life for days†¦it was absolutely necessary that cruelty be used, because Billy wouldn’t do anything to save himself† (Vonnegut 34). Instead of being fueled by the pursuit of freedom and the survival of their country, these soldiers seem beaten down, so much to the point of resolved hopelessness and acceptance of death as a consequence of their inaction. The idea of war, fighting for a common cause, for the survival of the country, and for the future generations has been crushed in this book. Nothing about war is beneficial, and it is reflected in Vonnegut’s characters. When asked about their moral inaction, Vonnegut responded, saying, â€Å"There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces† (Cox). The author’s commentary once again confirms the deflating, and dehumanizing aspect of war. There are no characters in this story, simply because there are no true humans in war. No man can retain his self-identity after witnessing and experiencing the horrific aspects associated with war a massacre. Kurt Vonnegut employs the theme of free will to emphasize the lack of humanity regarding war. In this, we see a personal struggle of his surface. Like every other person who has been in war, Kurt Vonnegut came back a different man, a man who no longer recognized himself. Yet, he finds a certain resolved acceptance that this pain, the pain of war and the pain of suffering, is engrained into our nature. In his introduction, he met with a man named Harrison Star who asked him if his book is â€Å"an anti-war book,† when Vonnegut confirmed, he replied, â€Å"you know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing an anti-war book? I say why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead,† Vonnegut replied, â€Å"I believe that, too† (Vonnegut 3). There will always be suffering, murder, massacres and wars; its part of our human nature. To revert back to a world where there is no longer suffering, one must trace their roots all the way back to â€Å"two perfect people named Adam and Eve† (Vonnegut 74). As a somewhat comforting sentiment, Vonnegut begins to cope with his war experiences simply by understanding that many people have been in his place before him, and there will be many after him. After witnessing so much tragedy in war, Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse-Five as a way to cope with what he lived through during the war and as a way to reach out to humanity and induce understanding of the after affects of war. Witnessing firsthand the mindless slaughter of thousands of innocent lives in the Dresden massacre, Vonnegut felt as though it was his duty as a writer to write about it, and hopefully, bring awareness to the horrors of war. Published during the height of the Vietnam War, Slaughterhouse-Five did just that. Cox) At this time, anti-war protests were beginning to circle the country and, as a result, â€Å"struck such a chord with the reading public and [it] made its author a cultural icon† (Cox). Slaughterhouse-Five no doubt played a role in the public realization of the â€Å"horrors of war (and American responsibility for some of those horrors)† Slaughterhouse-Five’s enormous impact and powerful moral statement will continue to stand th e test of time, remaining a â€Å"masterly novel†¦of compassion,† as fate would have it (Cox).