War is a tragic experience that can motivate people to do many things. Many people have been inspired to write stories, poems or songs about the war. Many of these examples tend to reflect anti-war sentiments. Kurt Vonnegut is no different and his war experience inspired him to write a series of novels beginning with Slaughter-House Five. This is a unique novel expressing Vonnegut's feelings towards the war. These strong feelings can be seen in the similarities between the characters, the information about the Tralfamadorians, the dark humor, and the structure of the novel. Kurt Vonnegut is an American novelist from Indianapolis, Indiana, born in 1922. A very important part of his life was when he served in World War II where he was taken as a prisoner of war. Vonnegut was captured by the Germans on December 14, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge (Biography). He was detained in Dresden with other prisoners of war to work in a syrup factory. When Dresden was bombed on February 13, 1945, he survived by hiding in the cellar of a slaughterhouse where prisoners of war lived. Vonnegut was finally able to return home in May 1945. He talks about his difficulty writing about his experiences at the beginning of his novel Slaughterhouse-Five and was not able to publish the book until 1969. Vonnegut created Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of the history, in order to express his own opinions on the war. One critic mentions that "no characters in contemporary fiction are more traumatized and emotionally damaged than those of Kurt Vonnegut" (Broer 121). Billy and Vonnegut have many similarities throughout the novel. Like Billy, Vonnegut was taken prisoner of war and witnessed the firebombing of Dresden (Vees-Gulani 175). During Billy's stay in Dresden, he encounters a German guard in the middle of paper...... "After the Fall: Kurt Vonnegut" Review Winter 1985: 96-102. "Kurt Vonnegut Biography" Classic Notes. April 18, 2005. [www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Authors/about_kurt_vonnegut.html].Broer, Lawrence R. Making the Case for Mental Health: Schizophrenia in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Rev. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1994. Lichtenstein, Jesse and Douthat. “SparkNote on Slaughterhouse-Five.” May 2. 2005 [www.sparknotes.com/lit/slaughter/].Rasmussen, R. Kent. “A Dance of Duty with Death.” Library Journal July 15. 2004: 125. Vees-Gulani, Susanne. “Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A Psychiatric Approach to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.” Critique Winter 2003: 175-184.Vit, Marek. “War in the Slaughterhouses-five” Collection of essays by Kurt Vonnegut. April 17, 2005 [www.geocities.com/Hollywood/4953/kv_sh5_war.html?20052].Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dell Editions, 1991.