Introduction
The Half-blood Blues narrates the story of a black band who successfully recorded a jazz album in the midst of World War II. It centers on a group of jazz musicians whose ambition to become great in their art was dampened by the war. The war did not only deter them from pursuing their musical aspiration as a group, but it also shattered their dreams forever. On the other hand, the Slaughterhouse-Five is considered as an anti-war novel, and centers on the life of Billy Pilgrim. Most of the stories in this novel were based on the experiences of the narrator who talked about being an alien and having experienced travelling through time. One of the themes of these two novels is focussed on warfare, specifically on the anti-war sentiments of the authors.
The three main characters in the Half-Blood Blues who dreamed of performing their music as a band, unfortunately found themselves hiding from the Nazis. Initially, the Hot Time Swingers which were considered as a well-known jazz band before the war in Berlin was prohibited by the Nazis from further performing their music. The narrator talked about how “a bunch of German and American kids meeting up in Berlin and Paris between wars to make all this wild, joyful music before the Nazis kick it to pieces” (Edugyan, 34). It is because of the war that the band stopped playing and the members drifted apart as they went into hiding. Hierorynmus Falk, considered to be a music genius by Louis Armstrong was arrested in Paris Café and nothing has been heard of him since then. His apparent disappearance was attributed to the war and in his being a black German. No one was certain about what specifically happened, but he was assumed to have perished “after getting sprung from an Austrian work camp” (Edugyan, 27).
The war was to be blamed for the subsequent fall of the band. Further, had it not been for the warfare, there would be no reason for the members of the band to stop performing. Reading through the book, one can't help but blame the war for the arrest and assumed demise of Flak in the concentration camp after Germany invaded France. In addition to that, they would not have gone into hiding, and there was no motivation to arrest Heirnymus Falk just because he was a black German. Despite the war, Falk became well-known for his music, so that his life was considered to merit a film documentary that was largely drawn from the memory of his two surviving friends who were already in their prime. The anti-war theme of this novel can be perceive on how the trio was depicted in the beginning as genius in their field of music, but were forced to disengage from their art because of the war and political chaos.
In both the novel, the leading characters were caught unprepared for the coming of the war. The Half-Blood Blues were set to make their mark in the music industry by paying their jazz music, while Billy Pilgrim of Slaughterhouse was an assistant to the chaplain. There was also the idea of being captured by the enemy or being prisoners of war in both novels. Hierorynmus Falk was caught and detained in a concentration camp until his suspected demise, while Billy Pilgrim, together with Roland Weary were captured by the enemy (Vonnegut, 74). In both instances, the difficulty of the lives of the prisoners of war was shown in how Falk was thought to be dead and the manner by which Pilgrim was treated, such as throwing him into the shrubbery.
In contrast to the Half-Blood Blues, the author of Slaughterhouse-Five specifically mentioned in the book that his work was an anti-war book. While the Half-Blood left it to the reader to decide that the story has an anti-war sentiment, the Slaughterhouse-Five specifically cited this feeling in most part of the novel. When asked by the woman writer about the squashed guy, the narrator just answered that it did not bother him since he have “seen lots worse than that in the war” (Vonnegut, 12). This means that while there are horrible things that one may experience around, there is nothing more unbearable than experiencing the war itself. Further, the narrator wrote about how he told his sons that they should not participate in wars and that they should not find it pleasurable to receive news of the death or massacres even of their enemies (Vonnegut, 24). Moreover, there was also a difference in terms of the role of the main characters in the novels. While all of them were affected by the warfare, the band members of the Half-Blood did not directly participate in the hostilities, while the Slaughterhouse depicted the participation of the main character in the conflict.
Conclusion
The two novels showed how people’s lives are affected by war. In the Half-Blood, it caused the collapse of the ambition of three young men to perform their music. On the other hand, it caused the destruction of relationships in the Slaughterhouse. In any instance, warfare is never worthy because it does not only destroy the people’s earnest desire to achieve, but it can also destroy one’s humanity.
Works Cited
Edugyan, Esi. Half-Blood Blues: A Novel. Macmillan. 2012
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group. 2009
