Reminders:
- ATQ -- exact words, keep linking at to it (representing xxx)
- Compare & Contrast whenever possible (similarly, like, also)
- How (techniques) & To What Effect (Authorial Intent, in TS)
- Convincing & detailed evidence (quotes, listing, for example)
Power verbs
- authorial intent
- seeks to
- aims to
- intends to
- hopes to
- compare
- similarly
- likewise
- in a similar manner
- comtrast
- in contrast
- on the other hand
- whereas
- while
## Slaughterhouse 5
technique
- repetition of "so it goes"
- the banality of death in wartime
- Vonnegut’s way of mocking how people normalize violence
- non-linear narrative structure, fragmented narrative
- reflect the mental disorientation of trauma, harmful consequence of war
- meta-fiction, self-intersion
- makes the reader constantly aware that this is not just fiction — it’s based on Vonnegut’s real experiences during WWII
Quotes
- "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre"
- "All this happened, more or less."
- "That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."
- "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."
- "unstuck in time"
- "bug trapped in amber"
- "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future." -- fatalism
- "They were all machines." -- how war strips individuals of agency and turns them into instruments of violence
authorial intent
- to reveal the the meaninglessness, absurdity and destructiveness of war, the senselessness of violence
- to challenge the dominant narrative & critique the romanticization, glorification, and rationalization of war
## WAPZ
technique
- repetition of violence
- First-Person Monologue / Framed Narrative
- This structure gives power and agency to Firdaus, allowing her to control her story, even in a society that constantly silences her.
- It also challenges the reader’s assumptions by forcing them to hear a condemned woman’s inner world, directly and unfiltered.
- symbolism of the certificate
- seeking validation from a soceity
- worthless in a society that refuses to recognize women’s intelligence unless it’s in service of men
- transformative shift in self-worth
- saying no
- "A prostitute always says yes, and then names her price. If she says no she ceases to be a prostitute. I was not a prostitute in the full sense of the word, so from time to time I said no. As a result my price kept going up."
authorial intent
- to expose the brutal reality of women’s lives
- to critiques the systemic & normalized violence and oppresion against women in a patriarchical society
quotes
- “I hope for nothing / I want for nothing / I fear nothing / I am free.”
evidence
- the cycle of oppression
- Her father beats her.
- Sheik Mamoud abuses her
- Bayoumi rapes and dehumanizes her.
- Her pimp takes her money.
- resistance through death
- At the end of the novel, Firdaus is offered a chance to appeal her death sentence — yet she **refuses to beg**, and actively chooses execution. For her, death is **not defeat**, but the **only moment in her life when she is truly free**.
- “I prefer to die rather than live without self-respect.”