Unclimactic War

There is no question that the goal of the Slaughterhouse-Five is for it to act as an anti-war novel. The narrator himself promises that it will be when he is talking to Mary in chapter one. He makes his promise by saying, "I give you my word of honor: there won't be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne" (Vonnegut 19). What he is saying is that the story isn't going to be about the "glory" of war but instead about the inherent truth. But that raises the question is it possible to write an anti-war book? That question has to be asked because of so many movies and novels that show war as a glorious thing.
But despite that, Vonnegut definitely succeeds in making Slaughterhouse-Five an anti-war novel. To do so he uses several techniques that make the novel incredibly anti-climactic and makes the reader feel uninvolved. He does this by making Billy Pilgrim the epitome of a horrible soldier. He writes it so that Billy is seen as a joke, often because he acts like one. He picks out the most ridiculous jacket, he puts on silver boots from a play and even gets asked if he is trying to make a joke. When combined with the way Billy acts disconnected from everything around him, for example, smiling at the weirdest times, the war-like scenes in the war don't seem exciting. An example of this is the scene where the two scout gets shot. While there is action going on, the tone of the book and the straightforward way it was narrated was able to make the scene not interesting in terms of action.
Another strategy he uses is irony. The book is absolutely full of irony and most of it is built around the same idea: those that are ready for the war and want to live, tend to die, while Billy who is not prepared whatsoever and makes no discernable attempts to stay alive continues to live. Once again a perfect example is the scene when the two scout gets shot. The two scouts who know what they are doing get shot and die but Billy somehow makes it out alive. What this does is show that war isn't a chance to prove yourself at all. You can prepare all you want but when it comes done to it the nature of war is so brutal that it doesn't matter.
Another thing Vonnegut does is using soldiers that don't match the stereotype used in typical war movies and books. Instead he follows up on his promise to Mary and portrays the soldiers as children and other people who don't want to be there. By making the soldiers in the war children like Roland Weary and Werner Gluck, or farmers like the soldiers that found Billy and Roland, or teachers like Edgar Derby, Vonnegut creates absolutely no character that would be played by Frank Sinatra or John Wayne. This shows that wars weren't actually entirely fought by people who were seeking honor and glory and instead shows the hard truth.