Three important symbols found in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five are
The Slaughterhouse, The Prayer, and The Optometrist.
The Slaughterhouse: The fact that the slaughterhouse, a place usually associated with
death, serves the prisoners of war as a refuge during the bombing and thereby allows
them to survive is symbolic of the illusion of life and death. A place where death is
supposed to happen actually serves a way to perpetuate life. “ He was down in the
meat locker on the night that Dresden was destroyed...The meat locker was a very safe
shelter.” “The rest of the guards had, before the raid began, gone to the comforts of their
own homes in Dresden. They were all being killed with their families.”(P. 177)
The Prayer: The prayer on the wall of Billy Pilgrim’s optometry office which is the same
as the prayer written on Montana Wildhack’s locket symbolizes the human condition
and how humans must conform and accept this condition in the face of life’s
uncertainties. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage
to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”(Pp.60, 209)
The Optometrist: The fact that Billy Pilgrim is an optometrist and as such is in charge
of fixing people’s “vision” is symbolic of the fact that this character, through his war
experiences and his time travel, his having become “unstuck in time”, can give others
a glimpse into what life is really about. As an optometrist, Pilgrim is able to literally
enhance other’s vision and make them see more clearly. “He was doing nothing less
now, he thought than prescribing corrective lenses for Earthling souls.”(P. 29)
These symbols are related to the text and therefore textual. Slaughterhouse-Five is a
highly symbolic novel, these are but three of the many symbols within it.
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