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Personification
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim frequently becomes unstuck in time—both literally through time travel and figuratively through memories and recollection—and, as such, the story jumps around from place to place as it jumps from time to time.
A lot of the story takes place in Germany during World War II, whether that be the city of Dresden, a prisoner of war camp, or the sparsely populated countryside. Conversely, the story also takes place in Illium, New York during the 1950s and 1960s, as this is where Billy Pilgrim lives with his wife Valencia Pilgrim and opens up an optometrist practice under the tutelage of his father-in-law. There are dozens of other settings touched on over the course of the story, ranging from the fictional planet of Tralfamadore to Vermont's Sugarbush Mountain. Billy Pilgrim's last name, "Pilgrim," gestures at the story's different settings: he journeys throughout time and place, wandering through charted and uncharted territory alike.
The diverse settings that Pilgrim moves between as he travels through time underscore the abruptness of the time travel, which occurs suddenly and without warning throughout the novel. The various settings outside of Germany during World War II also provide a sharp contrast to the miserable and dreary locations visited by Pilgrim as a soldier, furthering the novel's anti-war message.
Related Themes:
