So It Goes Podcast (Book Club Meeting 2)
Matthew, Deja, Katie, Zahira, Leah
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-dresden
The article was about the bombing that occurred in Dresden, Germany during World War II. It does a really good job of explaining the context in which the attack happened. It also has a section dedicated to talking about the aftermath of the bombing. Throughout the book, the author and the main character mention the bombing in Dresden many times. Ultimately, Dresden is where the main character finds himself imprisoned at Slaughterhouse Five, and he winds up surviving the attack. This directly correlates to the New Historicist lens because Kurt Vonnegut survived the Dresden bombing as a prisoner of war. Likely, he included the Dresden bombing in his book as a way to interpret the traumatic event that happened to him.
The article was about how the concentration camps worked as mentioned in the title. Starting off with these two French women mentioning the large trucks filled with dead bodies. It scarred them, saying that “If one day someone makes a film they must film this scene. This night. This moment.” Later on in the article, it mentioned that there was a child's room. That room was for women who were going into the camps pregnant, they were forced to be apart from their baby, that baby would then be placed into the room to starve to death or eaten alive by rats. The camps were grotesque and powerful for those not in the camps. It shows Hitler's rule over the people. It provides more insight into the novel and the lens chosen due to the fact that the prison camps are mentioned a bit within the books. Mentioned in the beginning and when readers were told Billy had gotten captured pretty young. Kurt Vonnegut was also captured pretty young by the Germans after he was drafted into the war.
The Children's Crusade was known as a movement where 20000 child soldiers who were assigned to fight when there was a greater chance of losing the war than winning with many survivors. Many of these children made it back home but a majority of them ended up captured and being sold into slavery. this was a fight fought in 1212 c.e, but it has relevance when speaking of our book " Slaughterhouse Five" where many of our characters have fought in the second world war. Billy who is one of our main characters is captured as he is fighting. He and those he fighting are only 16 to 18. Still children in our time.
Pols, Hans, and Stephanie Oak., "WAR & Military Mental Health." AM J Public Health. (2007). PMC: U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Web. 7 Jan 2019.
This article was an informative position article of sorts written by two U.S. government doctors researching WWII PTSD, especially during the 20th century. It mainly spoke of how psychiatrists during this era treated the soldiers before deployment and after discharge. This article felt that the treatments available now were inadequate for treating war inflicted PTSD on the before, during, and after the war. This article provided more insight into my novel and lens because the book itself is mainly about veteran suffering from PTSD and how his life was affected by it in a very roundabout way. Nevertheless, this book creates some inside on the historical background on how WWII soldiers were being treated during that time.
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