Connections Between Vonnegut & Spiegelman’s Writing

Vonnegut and Spiegelman possess quite a similar writing style that cannot be overlooked. One attribute I noticed while reading was how Vonnegut and Spiegelman applied metafiction in their work. As discussed in class, metafiction, in a nutshell, is a writing technique that draws attention to the work of art whilst still revealing the truth of the story. I believe Spiegelman does a great job in using metafiction. Throughout the graphic novel, Artie is trying to write the very book that we are reading. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut tells his readers in the beginning of how he wrote Slaughterhouse-Five. Thus, Vonnegut and Spiegelman used metafiction as a way to make their stories more real rather they did it intentionally or not.

Another similarity they possess in their writing is how unapologetic they are when it comes to their storytelling. In the very beginning of Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut loses a little credibility by stating that “all this happened, more or less.” In Spiegelman’s graphic novel, we see that Artie’s father sometimes has a difficulty time remembering which Spiegelman includes in his story which, thereby, also loses credibility because we don’t know if anything Artie’s father is saying is what really happened. They make no apologies for what they include or leave out of their story which brings a certain authenticity to their stories because it all centers on one character. Both books are about World War II and instead of dwelling on politics and facts, they focus primarily on one character. Slaughterhouse-Five focuses on Billy Pilgrim whereas Maus focuses on the life of Artie’s father, Vladek Spiegelman.

In addition, Spiegelman and Vonnegut both view death as just a phase of life and write it as such. Vonnegut mentions death in a casual, flippant  tone with the legendary phrase, “So it goes”. This phrase can easily be placed in Maus in some situations as well. For example, when Artie’s father mentioned his mother’s death. “ She was sick of cancer…and a month or two later she died.” (So it goes.) It appears that both authors possess the same idea of death and it shows through their work.

All in all, Spiegelman and Vonnegut have taken a horrific, tragic event, World War II, and altered it to encompass a story of life and loss intertwined. Maus focuses on a relationship between father and son whereas Slaughterhouse-Five focuses on the bombing of Dresden and Billy Pilgrim who is at war with himself.  Both Spiegelman and Vonnegut succeed in telling their stories with as much sincerity as they can muster. They share the same nonchalant tone and sardonic humor. Their narrative storytelling is candid and poignant.