The Neverending Campaign to Ban 'Slaughterhouse Five'

Inside the pages of Slaughterhouse-Five, a master of ceremonies asks people to explain the function of the novel in modern society. It’s a scene that the school board of Republic High School in southwestern Missouri may have glazed over, or didn’t appreciate, or simply didn’t read, when they recently voted 4-0 to ban Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel from their curriculum and pull it from the library’s shelves.

A novel’s purpose, according to the passage:    

“One critic said, ‘To provide touches of color in rooms with all-white walls.’ Another one said, ‘To describe blow-jobs artistically.’ Another one said, ‘To teach wives of junior executives what to buy next and how to act in a French restaurant.’”

The function of Slaughterhouse-Five has long been as a teaching tool in American classrooms. The book’s protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, is based on a real American soldier who was held as a prisoner during World War II. During this traumatic period, Pilgrim becomes “unstuck in time” as a result of shell-shock. He is doomed to relive moments of his life over and over again.