Celebration of Meaninglessness in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

Abstract

The present research explores celebration of meaninglessness in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter house-Five. Widespread devastation of the Second World War, the threat of nuclear annihilation and increasing arms race underpinned by mechanical sophistication render life meaningless for humanity in general and for Vonnegut and his character Billy Pilgrim in particular. But Vonnegut has come out with an answer to these concerns in the novel. Even though wars and deaths are unavoidable,in this modern society we can armor ourselves with the mechanism of celebration by accepting helplessness, fragmentation and meaninglessness as essence of human existence in the face of the grand sweep of history.So,the celebration of meaninglessnessex ploited in the novel,with the techniques of pastiche, inter textuality, paradox, irony, fragmentation, adaptation and alienation serve as a defense mechanism against the traumatic experiences of war.