The Secret Letter

Click the above link to read the three page letter yourself, sdo that you won't feel lost when I begin to babble on. :)


Instructions
Discusses your thoughts on the article and also how it relates to Slaughterhouse-Five.

Consider the following points as you write your post:

How does the soldier's experiences in, "The Secret Letter", compare to Billy Pilgrim's experiences in Slaughterhouse-Five?

In chapter one, Vonnegut writes about the difficulties of writing a true war story. Is the author of "The Secret Letter" successful in his attempt to capture the truth? In which ways is he successful? And in which ways is he not successful? Does he encounter similar hurtles as Vonnegut?

What is the author's purpose for writing the, "Secret Letter"? Is the author pro or anti war, or neither?


This article relates to slaughter house five becuase they are both about the war. In the novel, the main charater is going back in time and telling his stories of the war and what he though of it. In the letter, the soldier that is writting, is telling what he sees in the war, and his feeling towards war. He describes what he dislikes and basically says there is nothing to like when he says that there weren't any good moments really in the war, except when they find the kidnappers of Jill Carroll. In both the novel and the letter, Billy Pilgrams experiences are very much like the secret soldiers experiences. They both have dislikes about the wars and both don't want to be there. Billy Pilgram doesn't like the bad parts of war and gets deep in the subject of describing what he dislikes. The secret soldier doesn't get to much into depth, but does state that, "Worst Sound is that crack-boom off in the distance that means an IED or mine just went off. You just wonder who got it, hoping that it was a near miss rather than a direct hit. Hear it practically every day." He says that the second worst sound is "Our artillery firing without warning. The howitzers are pretty close to where I work. Believe me, outgoing sounds a lot like incoming when our guns are firing right over our heads. They'd about knock the fillings out of your teeth."

Between Billy Pilgram and the secret soldier, they both have the lose of a friend in common during the war and the secret soldier states how sad it makes him feel. He says, "The saddest moment is having an infantry battalion commander hand me the dog tags of one of my Marines who had just been killed while on a mission with his unit. Hit by a 60mm mortar. He was a great Marine. I felt crushed for a long time afterward. His picture now hangs at the entrance to our section area. We'll carry it home with us when we leave in February."

In chapter one, Vonnegut writes about the difficulties of writing a true war story. The Secret letter author is successful in describing some things about the war. Though in the begining, he try's to explian to his reader, that it is difficult to write to someone about the war, that isn't confidential or to gross. He does however, make an attampt, and does a good job at wirting without giving private information out to others or describing something that is disgusting. The author mainly tells hia feelings and some of his experiences. Vonnegut does pretty much the same thing, but does give some graphic information that would make you not want to close you eyes. However, these two authors have many things in common but also have different pionts of telling about the war. They both seem to state that they dislike the war, and are agianst it, as many others are also!!!

Life in 4D!!!

Tralfamadorians view the universe in a way that is vastly different from our own. In your blog, please explain how the tralfamadorians view the universe and the consequences associated with it. Discuss pros and cons, and whether or not Billy's mission to educate the public would be beneficial to society.
Points to consider:
-free will
-accountability for ones actions
-motivation to better ones self

(: (: Tralfamadorians view the universe as in time. It views the universe in moments, all at once, like a whole bunch of scenes put together to create one big picture. The people are viewed as millipeads, because they see us doing the whole day in a flash. We only see our life as one frame, followed by another frame. Tralfamadorians view it all together. For example, you can take a roll of film, with a movie on it, and tape it around the room. You see it all but don't have a clue on whats going on. The tralfamadorians see that, but they can process it better than. Also, for example, you are at the football game, and you don't know who is going to win. The Tralfamadorians can see all that, before it happens. :) :)

(: (: Billy's mission to educate the public would not be beneficial because when you see something that is going to happen in the future, most likely, you can not change it if you wanted. For example, if you knew that the football team was going to lose, then if you tryed to cheat your way through it, they would most likely still lose. Or for another example, if you knew how your death might happen, chances are, you can not change it, because you can not change free will. What it is, wil be. In a way that this method of informing the public would be good, is that if you knew that in a horse rade, Oscar was going to be sally, then you would most definitly vote for oscar to win so that you could win. It is a way of bettering ones self and the people around them. :) :)