SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE

By the end of this unit, students will be able to: make connections between Slaughterhouse-Five and the modernist and postmodernist movements, especially in terms of: character development, plot structure, tone, and style; make connections between Slaughterhouse-Five and important social, philosophic, and scientific issues in the 20th century, especially: World War II and the Dresden bombing, the Vietnam Conflict, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, Einstein’s theory of relativity, existentialism, postwar suburban living, Freud’s theory of Eros and Thanatos, etc.; identify and explain the use of black humor, satire, parody, dramatic irony, structural irony and verbal irony, anti-hero, ambiguity in theme, science fiction, episodic plot structure, flat, and static characterization; identify and explain Vonnegut’s use of first-person and third-person points of view; identify and explain Vonnegut’s use of simple, short sentences, and clipped dialogue; identity and explain the unconventional structure of Slaughterhouse-Five derived from associations between episodes; identify and explain Vonnegut’s approach to characterization in the novel; identify and explain Vonnegut’s use of both "high" and "low" literature in the novel; discuss and explain key themes and motifs in the book, using material from the text as well as content from outside research; contrast characters in the book, using material in the text as support; identify examples of important symbols and metaphors in the book, and explain their function; and develop an opinion of the literary merit of the book, using textual and outside material for support. 82 pages. ©2006.